The kilo will now be defined according to Planck's constant, at the heart of the quantum revolution. This dematerialization will complete one of Enlightenment dreams.
The stallion in platinum iridium stored for more than a century in Sèvres, near Paris, will become obsolete. CHRISTOPHE MAOUT FOR THE WORLD
After this reading, you may not cook as before. Will it be soon to measure the sugar in the jam, the amount of cocoa in the tiramisu or butter in the chocolate fondant, or just to check the effect of these delicacies on our weight, absorb complicated treaties of theoretical physics? And also become fond of quantum mechanics, this theory that describes the infinitely small, on scales far more microscopic than the sugar grain, the piece of chocolate or the tip of fat, at the level of molecules and atoms? Because the good old kilogram is becoming ... quantum.
Provided that, on Friday, 16 November, the sixty delegates of the General Conference of Weights and Measures (GFCM) decide at their quadrennial meeting which begins on 13 November.