Daniel Carrera wrote:
Ian Lynch wrote:
this is agreed to be unsatisfactory,
Yes it would be difficult to see how the measurement might be checked
without losing the odd atom or two :-)
Wikpedia says that the lump of metal gains mass because it absorbs
atmospheric contamination. So they have this complicated technique to
clean it, and the technique removes about 5-60 micrograms of
contaminants. I imagine that you have to worry about not removing too
much stuff every time you clean it.
They actually have several replicas around the world, for mutual
calibration. But it turns out that these masses have been diverging
from each other. The base prototype (the one that truly defines the
Kg) has lost about 50 micrograms in its life compared to the replicas.
Nobody knows why. So they also don't know whether the main prototype
has lost mass or whether the replicas have gained mass (maybe they
replicas don't get cleaned as well?). And of course, it's possible
that they are all diverging one way or the other, and we wouldn't know.
There is an additional 30 microgram monthly variation in the
proptotypes which is not explained either.
Daniel.
I have an odd theory, nothing to back it up really, but here goes --
what if "dark matter" tends to drift in and out of normal matter,
doesn't interact, isn't detectable by any means except by its actual
mass. I have not heard of any other theories that make any more sense
than this to explain this phenomenon.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
