For more than a century, a single metal cylinder in a Paris vault quietly defined what a kilogram was. After 130 years, ...

In a subterranean vault in a suburb of Paris lies a small, rarely seen metal cylinder known as Le Grand K. For 130 years, this golf-ball-sized hunk of 90% platinum and 10% iridium has served as the ...

When we measure the world, we measure it using base units like 'foot,' 'mile,' 'meter,' and 'second.' But who decides how big those units of measurement are? In the United States, those units are ...

After more than a century, the international prototype kilogram – a cylindrical chunk of metal stored in a French vault – doesn't weigh the same as its 40 replicas, distributed worldwide and used to ...

The new kilogram has finally arrived. Updates to scientists’ system of measurement went into force May 20, redefining the kilogram and several other units in the metric system. The revamp does away ...

It’s one of those things where if you think about it too much, your head might explode. We know there are 1,000 grams in a kilogram, and 1,000 kilograms in a metric ton, but how was it ever decided ...

VERSAILLES, France -- In a historic vote, more than 50 nations unanimously approved an overhaul of the international measurement system that underpins global trade and other human endeavors, uniting ...

A kilo is a kilo is a kilo, right? Wrong. Monday marks World Metrology Day, and this year’s edition sees a big change in the way the kilogram unit is defined. In November last year, scientists and ...

A kilogram just isn’t what it used to be. The 118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing ...

The 'one kilogram to rule them all' was cast in platinum and iridium in 1879 and is kept in a triple-locked vault THE world says goodbye to the original kilogram on May 20, on World Metrology Day.

Scientists from around the world are gathering in France today to decide the fate of the kilogram. For nearly 130 years, the kilogram has been based on a lump of metal called the Big K, locked in a ...