Skip to main content
24-Ruby IV
February 23, 2018
Question

SI or cm-gm-sec

  • February 23, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 2745 views

It is the continue of this question SI and cm-gm: sec problem with units

At us in Russia discussions on what system of measurements the textbooks on physics for schoolboys and students should be based do not cease!
Some say that the SI is a standard (the law) and one must do everything.
Others argue that the SI created idiots, who were expelled from universities for academic failure in vain time. The system SGS created ин genius Gauss!

What do you think about it?

 

У нас в России не утихают споры о том, на какой системе измерений должны базироваться учебники по физике для школьников и студентов!
Одни говорят, что СИ - это стандарт (закон) и его должны все выполнять.
Другие же утверждают, что СИ создали недоумки, которых в свое время выгнали из университетов за академическую неуспеваемость. Систему же СГС создал гениальный Гаусс.
Что вы думаете по этому поводу?

SI.png

1 reply

23-Emerald IV
February 23, 2018

I think it is very important that people al over the world use the same standards as much as possible, especially since the world is 'getting smaller' day by day. That is no less important for scientists than for trading folk. One set of unit standards makes for better understanding and less errors.

 

About the only thing I can say FOR the CGS system is that it uses the gram, rather than the kilogram as the base unit of mass. This means in the CGS system you can apply prefixes p (pico), m (milli), M (Mega) and P (Peta) for pg, mg, Mg and Pg respectively, directly to the base unit. In SI you can't: pkg, mkg, Mkg and Pkg are NOT allowed.

But the CGS system has a similar flaw. The CGS system uses the cm as a base unit for length, with the same problems there.

Other than that I think the SI is a superior system that, together with the definitions of the base units has evolved well over time and is still evolving for the better. This year a big change is coming. We're finally stepping away from the prototype 1 kg that is kept in Paris as the standard for the base unit for mass. See here:

https://www.bipm.org/utils/en/pdf/si-revised-brochure/Draft-SI-Brochure-2018.pdf

 

Luc

24-Ruby IV
February 23, 2018

Proposals to clarify the meaning of most of them have good prospects. The stumbling block was a kilogram, because there is a standard, but it is subject to changes, and this causes regular disputes in the scientific environment. A number of experts propose to determine kilograms, based on the value of the Planck constant. In addition, it is proposed to give a kilogram a new name. The fact is that a kilogram is the only basic SI unit with a multiplier of one kilo. A contest for the best name for the updated basic unit of mass will be announced, and she herself, as noted above, will be tied to the Planck's constant, and not to the platinum-iridium standard of kilograms stored in the Paris Chamber of Weights and Measures.

The standard of kilogram, which became unnecessary by this moment, is planned to be handed over to the winner of this contest. The most likely thing is that the name stein with the abbreviation of st and the derived units mst, mcst, etc., will win here. Stein, it's more likely that ein Stein is a German a stone - one object with a mass . On the other hand, it is the root in the name of the brilliant physicist Einstein, who for various reasons has not found himself in the "pantheon" of the basic and production units of measurement. In the name of Einstein, only a little-valued extra-system unit for the number of photons is used, which is used in photochemistry, and even very rarely. Replacing the kilogram by the stein will correct this injustice.

23-Emerald IV
February 23, 2018

I remembered this limerick:

 

"There was once a family called Stein,
There was Gert,
There was Ep,
There was Ein.
Gert's writings were bunk,
Ep's statues were junk,
An no one could understand Ein."

(from: "Breakfast with Lucian. A portrait of the artist." by  Geordie Greig)

 

I think that Bern was also part of that family. A composer and conductor.

 

Luc