THE VIDEO SHELF · kilogram redefinition
World's Roundest Object!
Veritasium explains the effort to redefine the kilogram, which was still defined by a physical artifact, and how a near-perfect silicon sphere from the Avogadro project helps. It also covers the history of the unit's odd naming.
Why HN readers recommended it
Recommended in kilogram-redefinition threads as a clear, short explainer of the Avogadro and Planck approaches.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- Veritasium
- Topic
- kilogram redefinition
- Format
- explainer
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 6
- HN mentions in dataset
- 9
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2013–2018
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
For anyone interested in the Planck and Avogadro projects to redefine the kilo, this video is an imperative watch: [VIDEO]
kunai on Hacker News · 2013-10
In The kilo is losing weight, changing all of scienceFantastic video by Vertiasium on this: [VIDEO] (side note: that video is about a sphere, but the current standard kilogram and its copies are actually shaped like little bells)
gsteinb88 on Hacker News · 2014-07
In The Meter: The Measure of a Man"Weirdly, it’s not even known if the IPK is getting lighter, or if the national prototypes are getting heavier — but either way, something is causing these kilos to change weight, by around 50 micrograms every 100 years." Well they COULD always do that thing …
EGreg on Hacker News · 2013-10
In The kilo is losing weight, changing all of science
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.
