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The Impact of the New SI on Industry
Speaker/Author:
Jeff Gust
Chief Corporate Metrologist
Fluke Corporation
6920 Seaway Blvd
Everett, WA 98203
[email protected]
Abstract
There is a draft resolution from the General Conference of Weights and Measures (CGPM)
inviting the International Committee of Weights and Measures (CIPM) to propose a revision of
the International System of Units (SI). While the actual implementation of any such change is
still years away, it is important to plan how the communication of the changes and
implementation of the revision would actually occur. The proposed revision to the SI has been
widely discussed at National Measurement Institutes (NMI's) and to a lesser extent, industry.
Although the magnitude of the changes in the proposal are generally too small to be seen by
most industrial organizations, it is important to communicate why the change is being made, how
it will occur, and what organizations must do in order to maintain traceability to the SI.
This paper provides background information regarding the possible changes to the SI, and
Fluke's role in realizing the changes. It identifies industrial measurements that may be
significantly affected by a redefinition, and addresses the roles and responsibilities that
organizations such as the NCSLI and companies like Fluke have to effectively communicate the
revision of the SI to industry measurement professionals.
Learning Objectives
After reading this paper, the reader should be able to understand:
That the SI will be redefined at some point in time
An approximate timeframe for redefinition
An initial understanding of whether the redefinition will potentially affect their
organization or not
The role major industrial organizations will play in educational activities associated with
a redefinition of the SI
How measurements associated with the redefinition of the SI will be disseminated to
industry
2011 NCSL International Workshop and Symposium
Introduction
In October of 2011, the CGPM may be meeting to consider a proposal to address the last of the
seven base SI units that are still defined in terms of a material artifact1. The proposal would
change the definition of the kilogram, which has remained unchanged since the first meeting of
the CGPM in 1889, to a value based upon a constant of nature. The kilogram would be the most
significant of the proposed changes to the SI, as it has been in place the longest amount of time.
Other quantities such as the ampere, mole and candela are all defined in terms of the kilogram,
and would also be affected by any redefinition of the kilogram. The draft of the proposal would
revise the SI as follows:
The ground state hyperfine splitting frequency of the caesium 133 atom (133Cs)hfs is
exactly 9 192 631 770 hertz
The speed of light in vacuum c is exactly 299 792 458 metre per second
The Planck constant h is exactly 6.626 06X