Perfect spheres and the new kilo


	Perfect spheres and the new kilo

JohnWaterman

7-11-2008 4:43 PM

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/ea33f522-7d2f-4584-a478-b53cb138be29/411603A3-E547-47C0-9D67-2074A05E147A/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14229-roundest-objects-in-the-world-created.html?feedId=online-news_rss20" href="http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14229-roundest-objects-in-the-world-created.html?feedId=online-news_rss20" style="font-size: 11px;">technology.newscientist.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14229-roundest-objects-in-the-world-created.html?feedId=online-news_rss20"><P>When asked by the Pope to demonstrate his artistic skill, 14<SUP>th</SUP> century Italian painter Giotto di Bondone supposedly drew a perfect circle freehand and said: "That's more than enough." Now, an international group of engineers and craftsmen has gone him one better and built a pair of nearly perfect spheres that are thought to be the roundest objects in the world.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14229-roundest-objects-in-the-world-created.html?feedId=online-news_rss20"> created as an answer to the "kilogram problem</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14229-roundest-objects-in-the-world-created.html?feedId=online-news_rss20"><P>The kilogram is the only remaining standard of measurement tied to a single physical object: a 120-year-old lump of platinum and iridium that sits in a vault outside of Paris, France. But the mass of this chunk of metal is slowly changing relative to the 40-odd copies kept by other countries, and no one knows why or by how much.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14229-roundest-objects-in-the-world-created.html?feedId=online-news_rss20">suggestions to redefine the kilogram</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14229-roundest-objects-in-the-world-created.html?feedId=online-news_rss20"><P>One proposal, pushed by an international team called the <A target="ns" href="http://www.acpo.csiro.au/avogadro.htm">Avogadro Project</A>, aims to <A href="http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/mg19526221.500-perfect-units-kissing-the-kilo-goodbye.html">define the kilogram in terms of a specific number of silicon atoms</A>. Just how many? That's where the newly created silicon spheres come in.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14229-roundest-objects-in-the-world-created.html?feedId=online-news_rss20"><div align="center"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RkT3L3hL2Ps" height="329" width="400" wmode="opaque" quality="high" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14229-roundest-objects-in-the-world-created.html?feedId=online-news_rss20"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/technology.newscientist.com/img/6CE0D24D-B066-4613-AF8A-B081C965036A" alt="The spheres have " /></div></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/411603A3-E547-47C0-9D67-2074A05E147A/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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