So you don't run out of things to worry about...
So I read a quote I like yesterday, and it got me thinking...
"A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never quite sure." ~ Lee Segall
This quote is super cool, but I think I mis-interpreted at first. Apparently, Lee had intended the quote to mean a man can own too much.
Paul Harvey sometimes does a news piece with the preface of "So you don't run out of things to worry about..."
OK, that quote made me think about the standards that are used to keep everything we measure in check.
You see, everything we measure on a daily basis is based on some standard, it may the last relevance that the French have in the world today.
Click Here to see what makes a second a second, and a meter a meter.
Anyways, you surely noticed that the only SI unit not linked to a physical, reproducible measurement was the kilogram.
It is linked to an actual piece of platinum alloy in France.
The thing is: everytime it is used, it could potentially lose some mass; maybe 50 parts per billion per century.
I did the math... A 200lb person => 90.9 kg. That 90.9 kg is changing by 0.00000004545 kg/year. And (If you are still reading this give yourself 5 points) back to pounds = 0.00000002066 lbs/year. To be completely thorough, the average white male born in 1979 in the U.S. lives 70.8 years, so that means I will have gained, by sheer measurement error, 0.000001463 lbs by the time I die.
Thankfully for all of us, there are several proposed changes that would eliminate the need for the super prototype, 'cause we really don't need anything else to worry about.