ABOUT THE NEW STANDARD OF THE UNIT OF MASS

For the past 129 years, the kilogram standard has been a platinum-iridium alloy cylinder stored at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. According to international experts, discrepancies between national copies of the main standard, stored in France, range from 20 to 50 μg, potentially posing the threat of a global technical crisis. The 26th General Conference on Weights and Measures in 2018 approved a new definition of the kilogram based on the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant.