Standard!

May 18th, 2019| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

For close to 250 years, Le Grand K has ruled the standard, the absolute despot of “1 kilogram of mass.”

It’s a cylinder of platinum-iridium stored safe in an underground vault in Paris, at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, with copies sent to various nations. Every measure of weight is compared to that dictatorial standard.

Because, as Robert Vocke, of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), declares:

The mother ship is never wrong.”

Well, mother is wrong and the ship has been sunk.

For some strange reason, in 1990, it was discovered that Le Grand K had become lighter than its copies by 50 micrograms.

So, late last year, in a conference held near the Palace of Versailles, there was a mutiny against the monarch. And not only against Le Grand K, but also against reigning standards for ampere (electric current), kelvin (temperature), and mole (chemical quantity). And with that the seven units in the International System of Units are now defined not by tangible items like a cylinder of platinum-iridium, but by abstract constants of nature. You see, physical objects can change. But things that form of the fabric of the universe cannot.

“Meter” went that route in 1983, when it was defined as the distance traveled by a beam of light in exactly 1/299,792,458th of a second. This latter thing, “second,” is the amount of time it takes an atom of Cesium 133 to vibrate 9,192,631,770 times.

And now the kilogram. It is being redefined as a specific number of silicon atoms. (All that has got something—I don’t know what—to do with Avogadro’s Number and Planck’s Constant.)

Said Stephan Schlamminger, another NIST scientist:

This arc of history started before the French Revolution and now, I think we’ve finished the journey. The democratization of the units is now complete.”

Maybe.

About 50% of humans say moral truth depends on the situation; about 20% say they don’t know what moral truth is. The rest agree that moral truth is unchanging, though, of course, what that standard is, is anyone’s guess!

When Charles V stepped down as the Holy Roman Emperor some 400 years ago, he spent much of his time at his palace in Spain. He had six clocks there, and no matter how he tried, he could never get them to chime together on the hour.

In his memoirs he wrote:

How is it possible for six different clocks to chime all at the same time? How is it even more impossible for the six nations of the Holy Roman Empire to live in harmony? It can’t be done. It’s impossible, even if they call themselves Christians.”

There really is only one unchanging standard, and it is not “democratizable.”

Therefore you are to be perfect,
as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48

And since there is no way for humans to be as perfect as God, he helped us out:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

And to those who believe in the atoning work of Jesus Christ, righteousness is credited.

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21

Standard met!

Therefore, having been declared righteous by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1

Once for all!

We also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Romans 5:11

Praise God!