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Katherine Johnson’s mathematical calculations helped guide some of America’s most important early space missions while she confronted the racial and gender barriers faced by Black women in twentieth-century America.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
| Symbol | Name | Base quantity |
|---|---|---|
| s | second | time |
| m | metre | length |
| kg | kilogram | mass |
| A | ampere | electric current |
| K | kelvin | thermodynamic temperature |
| mol | mole | amount of substance |
| cd | candela | luminous intensity |
The SI base units are the standard units of measurement defined by the International System of Units (SI) for the seven base quantities of what is now known as the International System of Quantities: they are notably a basic set from which all other SI units can be derived. The units and their physical quantities are the second for time, the metre (also spelled meter) for length or distance, the kilogram for mass, the ampere for electric current, the kelvin for thermodynamic temperature, the mole for amount of substance, and the candela for luminous intensity. The SI base units are a fundamental part of modern metrology, and thus part of the foundation of modern science and technology.[1]
The SI base units form a set of mutually independent dimensions as required by dimensional analysis commonly employed in science and technology.[2]
The names and symbols of SI base units are written in lowercase, except the symbols of those named after a person, which are written with an initial capital letter. For example, the metre has the symbol m, but the kelvin has symbol K, because it is named after Lord Kelvin and the ampere with symbol A is named after André-Marie Ampère.[3]
On 20 May 2019, as the final act of the 2019 revision of the SI, the BIPM officially introduced the following new definitions, replacing the preceding definitions of the SI base units.[4]
| Name | Symbol | Measure | Post-2019 formal definition[5] | Historical origin / justification | Dimension symbol |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| second | s | time | "The second, symbol s, is the SI unit of time. It is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the caesium frequency, ∆νCs, the unperturbed ground-state hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium 133 atom, to be 9192631770 when expressed in the unit Hz, which is equal to s−1."[5] | The day is divided into 24 hours, each hour divided into 60 minutes, each minute divided into 60 seconds. A second is 1 / (24 × 60 × 60) of the day. Historically, a day was defined as the mean solar day; i.e., the average time between two successive occurrences of local apparent solar noon. |
T |
| metre | m | length | "The metre, symbol m, is the SI unit of length. It is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the speed of light in vacuum c to be 299792458 when expressed in the unit m s−1, where the second is defined in terms of ∆νCs."[5] | 1 / 10000000 of the distance from the Earth's equator to the North Pole measured on the meridian arc through Paris. | L |
| kilogram | kg | mass | "The kilogram, symbol kg, is the SI unit of mass. It is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant h to be 6.62607015×10−34 when expressed in the unit J s, which is equal to kg m2 s−1, where the metre and the second are defined in terms of c and ∆νCs."[5] | The mass of one litre of water at the temperature of melting ice. A litre is one thousandth of a cubic metre. | M |
| ampere | A | electric current | "The ampere, symbol A, is the SI unit of electric current. It is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the elementary charge e to be 1.602176634×10−19 when expressed in the unit C, which is equal to A s, where the second is defined in terms of ∆νCs."[5] | The original "International Ampere" was defined electrochemically as the current required to deposit 1.118 milligrams of silver per second from a solution of silver nitrate. | I |
| kelvin | K | thermodynamic temperature | "The kelvin, symbol K, is the SI unit of thermodynamic temperature. It is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Boltzmann constant k to be 1.380649×10−23 when expressed in the unit J K−1, which is equal to kg m2 s−2 K−1, where the kilogram, metre and second are defined in terms of h, c and ∆νCs."[5] | The Celsius scale: the Kelvin scale uses the degree Celsius for its unit increment, but is a thermodynamic scale (0 K is absolute zero). | Θ |
| mole | mol | amount of substance | "The mole, symbol mol, is the SI unit of amount of substance. One mole contains exactly 6.022 140 76 × 1023 elementary entities.[5] This number is the fixed numerical value of the Avogadro constant, NA, when expressed in the unit mol−1 and is called the Avogadro number.
The amount of substance, symbol n, of a system is a measure of the number of specified elementary entities. An elementary entity may be an atom, a molecule, an ion, an electron, any other particle or specified group of particles."[5] |
Atomic weight or molecular weight divided by the molar mass constant, 1 g/mol. | N |
| candela | cd | luminous intensity | "The candela, symbol cd, is the SI unit of luminous intensity in a given direction. It is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the luminous efficacy of monochromatic radiation of frequency 540×1012 Hz, Kcd, to be 683 when expressed in the unit lm W−1, which is equal to cd sr W−1, or cd sr kg−1 m−2 s3, where the kilogram, metre and second are defined in terms of h, c and ∆νCs."[5] | The candlepower, which is based on the light emitted from a burning candle of standard properties. | J |
New base unit definitions were adopted on 16 November 2018, and they became effective on 20 May 2019. The definitions of the base units have been modified several times since the Metre Convention in 1875, and new additions of base units have occurred. Since the redefinition of the metre in 1960, the kilogram had been the only base unit still defined directly in terms of a physical artefact, rather than a property of nature. This led to a number of the other SI base units being defined indirectly in terms of the mass of the same artefact; the mole, the ampere, and the candela were linked through their definitions to the mass of the International Prototype of the Kilogram, a roughly golfball-sized platinum–iridium cylinder stored in a vault near Paris.
It has long been an objective in metrology to define the kilogram in terms of a fundamental constant, in the same way that the metre is now defined in terms of the speed of light. The 21st General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM, 1999) placed these efforts on an official footing, and recommended "that national laboratories continue their efforts to refine experiments that link the unit of mass to fundamental or atomic constants with a view to a future redefinition of the kilogram". Two possibilities attracted particular attention: the Planck constant and the Avogadro constant.
In 2005, the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) approved preparation of new definitions for the kilogram, the ampere, and the kelvin and it noted the possibility of a new definition of the mole based on the Avogadro constant.[6] The 23rd CGPM (2007) decided to postpone any formal change until the next General Conference in 2011.[7]
In a note to the CIPM in October 2009,[8] Ian Mills, the President of the CIPM Consultative Committee – Units (CCU) catalogued the uncertainties of the fundamental constants of physics according to the current definitions and their values under the proposed new definition. He urged the CIPM to accept the proposed changes in the definition of the kilogram, ampere, kelvin, and mole so that they are referenced to the values of the fundamental constants, namely the Planck constant (h), the elementary charge (e), the Boltzmann constant (k), and the Avogadro constant (NA).[9] This approach was approved in 2018, only after measurements of these constants were achieved with sufficient accuracy.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The SI base units are the standard units of measurement defined by the International System of Units (SI) for the seven base quantities of what is now known as the International System of Quantities: they are notably a basic set from which all other SI units can be derived. The units and their physical quantities are the second for time, the metre (also spelled meter) for length or distance, the kilogram for mass, the ampere for electric current, the kelvin for thermodynamic temperature, the mole for amount of substance, and the candela for luminous intensity. The SI base units are a fundamental part of modern metrology, and thus part of the foundation of modern science and technology. The SI base units form a set of mutually independent dimensions as required by dimensional analysis commonly employed in science and technology. The names and symbols of SI base units are written in lowercase, except the symbols of those named after a person, which are written with an initial capital letter. For example, the metre has the symbol m, but the kelvin has symbol K, because it is named after Lord Kelvin and the ampere with symbol A is named after André-Marie Ampère.
SI derived units are units of measurement derived from the seven SI base units specified by the International System of Units (SI). They can be expressed as a product (or ratio) of one or more of the base units, possibly scaled by an appropriate power of exponentiation (see: Buckingham π theorem). Some are dimensionless, as when the units cancel out in ratios of like quantities. SI coherent derived units involve only a trivial proportionality factor, not requiring conversion factors. The SI has special names for 22 of these coherent derived units (for example, hertz, the SI unit of measurement of frequency), but the rest merely reflect their derivation: for example, the square metre (m2), the SI derived unit of area; and the kilogram per cubic metre (kg/m3 or kg⋅m−3), the SI derived unit of density. The names of SI coherent derived units, when written in full, are always in lowercase. However, the symbols for units named after persons are written with an uppercase initial letter. For example, the symbol for hertz is "Hz", while the symbol for metre is "m".
The bar (symbol bar) is a metric unit of pressure defined as 100000 Pa (100 kPa or 1000 hPa), though not part of the International System of Units (SI). A pressure of 1 bar is slightly less than the average atmospheric pressure on Earth at sea level (approximately 1.013 bar). By the barometric formula, 1 bar is roughly the atmospheric pressure on Earth at an altitude of 111 metres at 15 °C. The bar and the millibar (symbol mbar) were introduced by the Norwegian meteorologist Vilhelm Bjerknes, a founder of the modern practice of weather forecasting, with the bar defined as one megadyne per square centimetre. The SI brochure lists the symbol and value for the bar but it is not an SI unit. The bar has been legally recognised in countries of the European Union since 2004. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) deprecates its use except for "limited use in meteorology" and lists it as one of several units that "must not be introduced in fields where they are not presently used". The International Astronomical Union (IAU) also lists it under "Non-SI units and symbols whose continued use is deprecated". Units derived from the bar include the megabar (symbol: Mbar), kilobar (symbol: kbar), decibar (symbol: dbar), centibar (symbol: cbar), and millibar (symbol: mbar). The microbar (symbol: μbar) is used in acoustics.
The roentgen or röntgen (; symbol R) is a legacy unit of measurement for the exposure of X-rays and gamma rays, and is defined as the electric charge freed by such radiation in a specified volume of air divided by the mass of that air (statcoulomb per kilogram). In 1928, it was adopted as the first international measurement quantity for ionizing radiation to be defined for radiation protection, as it was then the most easily replicated method of measuring air ionization by using ion chambers. It is named after the German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, who discovered X-rays and was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery. However, although this was a major step forward in standardising radiation measurement, the roentgen has the disadvantage that it is only a measure of air ionisation, and not a direct measure of radiation absorption in other materials, such as different forms of human tissue. For instance, one roentgen deposits 0.00877 grays (0.877 rads) of absorbed dose in dry air, or 0.0096 Gy (0.96 rad) in soft tissue. One roentgen of X-rays may deposit anywhere from 0.01 to 0.04 Gy (1.0 to 4.0 rad) in bone depending on the beam energy. As the science of radiation dosimetry developed, it was realised that the ionising effect, and hence tissue damage, was linked to the energy absorbed, not just radiation exposure. Consequently new radiometric units for radiation protection were defined which took this into account. In 1953 the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) recommended the rad, equal to 100 erg/g, as the unit of measure of the new radiation quantity absorbed dose. The rad was expressed in coherent cgs units. In 1975 the unit gray was named as the SI unit of absorbed dose. One gray is equal to 1 J/kg (i.e. 100 rad). Additionally, a new quantity, kerma, was defined for air ionisation as the exposure for instrument calibration, and from this the absorbed dose can be calculated using known coefficients for specific target materials. Today, for radiation protection, the modern units, absorbed dose for energy absorption and the equivalent dose (sievert) for stochastic effect, are overwhelmingly used, and the roentgen is rarely used. The International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) has never accepted the use of the roentgen. The roentgen has been redefined over the years. It was last defined by the U.S.'s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 1998 as 2.58×10−4 C/kg, with a recommendation that the definition be given in every document where the roentgen is used.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Joe Louis.
