1.
NIST
–
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is a measurement standards laboratory, and a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce. Its mission is to promote innovation and industrial competitiveness, in 1821, John Quincy Adams had declared Weights and measures may be ranked among the necessities of life to every individual of human society. From 1830 until 1901, the role of overseeing weights and measures was carried out by the Office of Standard Weights and Measures, president Theodore Roosevelt appointed Samuel W. Stratton as the first director. The budget for the first year of operation was $40,000, a laboratory site was constructed in Washington, DC, and instruments were acquired from the national physical laboratories of Europe. In addition to weights and measures, the Bureau developed instruments for electrical units, in 1905 a meeting was called that would be the first National Conference on Weights and Measures. Quality standards were developed for products including some types of clothing, automobile brake systems and headlamps, antifreeze, during World War I, the Bureau worked on multiple problems related to war production, even operating its own facility to produce optical glass when European supplies were cut off. Between the wars, Harry Diamond of the Bureau developed a blind approach radio aircraft landing system, in 1948, financed by the Air Force, the Bureau began design and construction of SEAC, the Standards Eastern Automatic Computer. The computer went into operation in May 1950 using a combination of vacuum tubes, about the same time the Standards Western Automatic Computer, was built at the Los Angeles office of the NBS and used for research there. A mobile version, DYSEAC, was built for the Signal Corps in 1954, due to a changing mission, the National Bureau of Standards became the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 1988. Following 9/11, NIST conducted the investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings. NIST had a budget for fiscal year 2007 of about $843.3 million. NISTs 2009 budget was $992 million, and it also received $610 million as part of the American Recovery, NIST employs about 2,900 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support and administrative personnel. About 1,800 NIST associates complement the staff, in addition, NIST partners with 1,400 manufacturing specialists and staff at nearly 350 affiliated centers around the country. NIST publishes the Handbook 44 that provides the Specifications, tolerances, the Congress of 1866 made use of the metric system in commerce a legally protected activity through the passage of Metric Act of 1866. NIST is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and operates a facility in Boulder, nISTs activities are organized into laboratory programs and extramural programs. Effective October 1,2010, NIST was realigned by reducing the number of NIST laboratory units from ten to six, nISTs Boulder laboratories are best known for NIST‑F1, which houses an atomic clock. NIST‑F1 serves as the source of the official time. NIST also operates a neutron science user facility, the NIST Center for Neutron Research, the NCNR provides scientists access to a variety of neutron scattering instruments, which they use in many research fields
2.
System of measurement
–
A system of measurement is a collection of units of measurement and rules relating them to each other. Systems of measurement have historically been important, regulated and defined for the purposes of science and commerce, systems of measurement in modern use include the metric system, the imperial system, and United States customary units. The French Revolution gave rise to the system, and this has spread around the world. In most systems, length, mass, and time are base quantities, later science developments showed that either electric charge or electric current could be added to extend the set of base quantities by which many other metrological units could be easily defined. Other quantities, such as power and speed, are derived from the set, for example. Such arrangements were satisfactory in their own contexts, the preference for a more universal and consistent system only gradually spread with the growth of science. Changing a measurement system has substantial financial and cultural costs which must be offset against the advantages to be obtained using a more rational system. However pressure built up, including scientists and engineers for conversion to a more rational. The unifying characteristic is that there was some definition based on some standard, eventually cubits and strides gave way to customary units to met the needs of merchants and scientists. In the metric system and other recent systems, a basic unit is used for each base quantity. Often secondary units are derived from the units by multiplying by powers of ten. Thus the basic unit of length is the metre, a distance of 1.234 m is 1,234 millimetres. Metrication is complete or nearly complete in almost all countries, US customary units are heavily used in the United States and to some degree in Liberia. Traditional Burmese units of measurement are used in Burma, U. S. units are used in limited contexts in Canada due to the large volume of trade, there is also considerable use of Imperial weights and measures, despite de jure Canadian conversion to metric. In the United States, metric units are used almost universally in science, widely in the military, and partially in industry, but customary units predominate in household use. At retail stores, the liter is a used unit for volume, especially on bottles of beverages. Some other standard non-SI units are still in use, such as nautical miles and knots in aviation. Metric systems of units have evolved since the adoption of the first well-defined system in France in 1795, during this evolution the use of these systems has spread throughout the world, first to non-English-speaking countries, and then to English speaking countries
3.
SI derived unit
–
The International System of Units specifies a set of seven base units from which all other SI units of measurement are derived. Each of these units is either dimensionless or can be expressed as a product of powers of one or more of the base units. For example, the SI derived unit of area is the metre. The degree Celsius has an unclear status, and is arguably an exception to this rule. The names of SI units are written in lowercase, the symbols for units named after persons, however, are always written with an uppercase initial letter. In addition to the two dimensionless derived units radian and steradian,20 other derived units have special names, some other units such as the hour, litre, tonne, bar and electronvolt are not SI units, but are widely used in conjunction with SI units. Until 1995, the SI classified the radian and the steradian as supplementary units, but this designation was abandoned, International System of Quantities International System of Units International Vocabulary of Metrology Metric prefix Metric system Non-SI units mentioned in the SI Planck units SI base unit I. Mills, Tomislav Cvitas, Klaus Homann, Nikola Kallay, IUPAC, Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list
4.
Electric potential
–
An electric potential is the amount of work needed to move a unit positive charge from a reference point to a specific point inside the field without producing any acceleration. Typically, the point is Earth or a point at Infinity. By dividing out the charge on the particle a remainder is obtained that is a property of the field itself. This value can be calculated in either a static or an electric field at a specific time in units of joules per coulomb. The electric potential at infinity is assumed to be zero, a generalized electric scalar potential is also used in electrodynamics when time-varying electromagnetic fields are present, but this can not be so simply calculated. The electric potential and the vector potential together form a four vector. Classical mechanics explores concepts such as force, energy, potential etc, force and potential energy are directly related. A net force acting on any object will cause it to accelerate, as it rolls downhill its potential energy decreases, being translated to motion, inertial energy. It is possible to define the potential of certain force fields so that the energy of an object in that field depends only on the position of the object with respect to the field. Two such force fields are the field and an electric field. Such fields must affect objects due to the properties of the object. Objects may possess a property known as charge and an electric field exerts a force on charged objects. If the charged object has a charge the force will be in the direction of the electric field vector at that point while if the charge is negative the force will be in the opposite direction. The magnitude of the force is given by the quantity of the charge multiplied by the magnitude of the field vector. The electric potential at a point r in an electric field E is given by the line integral where C is an arbitrary path connecting the point with zero potential to r. When the curl ∇ × E is zero, the integral above does not depend on the specific path C chosen. The concept of electric potential is linked with potential energy. A test charge q has a potential energy UE given by U E = q V
5.
Electromotive force
–
Electromotive force, also called emf, is the voltage developed by any source of electrical energy such as a battery or dynamo. It is generally defined as the potential for a source in a circuit. A device that supplies electrical energy is called electromotive force or emf, emfs convert chemical, mechanical, and other forms of energy into electrical energy. The product of such a device is known as emf. The word force in case is not used to mean mechanical force, measured in newtons. In electromagnetic induction, emf can be defined around a loop as the electromagnetic work that would be done on a charge if it travels once around that loop. This potential difference can drive a current if a circuit is attached to the terminals. Devices that can provide emf include electrochemical cells, thermoelectric devices, solar cells, photodiodes, electrical generators, transformer, in nature, emf is generated whenever magnetic field fluctuations occur through a surface. The shifting of the Earths magnetic field during a geomagnetic storm, … By chemical, mechanical or other means, the source of emf performs work dW on that charge to move it to the high potential terminal. The emf ℰ of the source is defined as the work dW done per charge dq, in the open-circuit case, charge separation continues until the electrical field from the separated charges is sufficient to arrest the reactions. Again the emf is countered by the voltage due to charge separation. If a load is attached, this voltage can drive a current, the general principle governing the emf in such electrical machines is Faradays law of induction. Electromotive force is often denoted by E or ℰ, in a device without internal resistance, if an electric charge Q passes through that device, and gains an energy W, the net emf for that device is the energy gained per unit charge, or J/Q. Like other measures of energy per charge, emf has SI units of volts, Electromotive force in electrostatic units is the statvolt. Inside a source of emf that is open-circuited, the electrostatic field created by separation of charge exactly cancels the forces producing the emf. Thus, the emf has the same value but opposite sign as the integral of the field aligned with an internal path between two terminals A and B of a source of emf in open-circuit condition. This equation applies only to locations A and B that are terminals and this equation involves the electrostatic electric field due to charge separation Ecs and does not involve any non-conservative component of electric field due to Faradays law of induction. The electrostatic field does not contribute to the net emf around a circuit because the portion of the electric field is conservative
6.
Alessandro Volta
–
He invented the Voltaic pile in 1799, and reported the results of his experiments in 1800 in a two-part letter to the President of the Royal Society. With this invention Volta proved that electricity could be generated chemically, Voltas invention sparked a great amount of scientific excitement and led others to conduct similar experiments which eventually led to the development of the field of electrochemistry. Alessandro Volta also drew admiration from Napoleon Bonaparte for his invention, Volta enjoyed a certain amount of closeness with the Emperor throughout his life and he was conferred numerous honours by him. Alessandro Volta held the chair of physics at the University of Pavia for nearly 40 years and was widely idolised by his students. Despite his professional success, Volta tended to be a person inclined towards domestic life, at this time he tended to live secluded from public life and more for the sake of his family until his eventual death in 1827 from a series of illnesses which began in 1823. The SI unit of electric potential is named in his honour as the volt, Volta was born in Como, a town in present-day northern Italy, on 18 February 1745. In 1794, Volta married a lady also from Como, Teresa Peregrini. His father, Filippo Volta, was of noble lineage and his mother, Donna Maddalena, came from the family of the Inzaghis. In 1774, he became a professor of physics at the Royal School in Como, a year later, he improved and popularised the electrophorus, a device that produced static electricity. In 1777, he travelled through Switzerland, there he befriended H. B. de Saussure. In the years between 1776 and 1778, Volta studied the chemistry of gases and he researched and discovered methane after reading a paper by Benjamin Franklin of the United States on flammable air. In November 1776, he found methane at Lake Maggiore, and he devised experiments such as the ignition of methane by an electric spark in a closed vessel. Volta also studied what we now call electrical capacitance, developing separate means to both electrical potential and charge, and discovering that for a given object, they are proportional. This is called Voltas Law of Capacitance, and it was for work the unit of electrical potential has been named the volt. In 1779 he became a professor of physics at the University of Pavia. Luigi Galvani, an Italian physicist, discovered something he named animal electricity when two different metals were connected in series with a leg and to one another. Volta realised that the frogs leg served as both a conductor of electricity and as a detector of electricity and he replaced the frogs leg with brine-soaked paper, and detected the flow of electricity by other means familiar to him from his previous studies. This may be called Voltas Law of the electrochemical series, Volta had determined that the most effective pair of dissimilar metals to produce electricity was zinc and copper
7.
SI base unit
–
The International System of Units defines seven units of measure as a basic set from which all other SI units can be derived. The SI base units form a set of mutually independent dimensions as required by dimensional analysis commonly employed in science, thus, the kelvin, named after Lord Kelvin, has the symbol K and the ampere, named after André-Marie Ampère, has the symbol A. Many other units, such as the litre, are not part of the SI. The definitions of the units have been modified several times since the Metre Convention in 1875. Since the redefinition of the metre in 1960, the kilogram is the unit that is directly defined in terms of a physical artifact. However, the mole, the ampere, and the candela are linked through their definitions to the mass of the 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, two possibilities have attracted particular attention, the Planck constant and the Avogadro constant. The 23rd CGPM decided to postpone any formal change until the next General Conference in 2011
8.
Kilogram
–
The kilogram or kilogramme is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype of the Kilogram. The avoirdupois pound, used in both the imperial and US customary systems, is defined as exactly 0.45359237 kg, making one kilogram approximately equal to 2.2046 avoirdupois pounds. Other traditional units of weight and mass around the world are also defined in terms of the kilogram, the gram, 1/1000 of a kilogram, was provisionally defined in 1795 as the mass of one cubic centimeter of water at the melting point of ice. The final kilogram, manufactured as a prototype in 1799 and from which the IPK was derived in 1875, had an equal to the mass of 1 dm3 of water at its maximum density. The kilogram is the only SI base unit with an SI prefix as part of its name and it is also the only SI unit that is still directly defined by an artifact rather than a fundamental physical property that can be reproduced in different laboratories. Three other base units and 17 derived units in the SI system are defined relative to the kilogram, only 8 other units do not require the kilogram in their definition, temperature, time and frequency, length, and angle. At its 2011 meeting, the CGPM agreed in principle that the kilogram should be redefined in terms of the Planck constant, the decision was originally deferred until 2014, in 2014 it was deferred again until the next meeting. There are currently several different proposals for the redefinition, these are described in the Proposed Future Definitions section below, the International Prototype Kilogram is rarely used or handled. In the decree of 1795, the term gramme thus replaced gravet, the French spelling was adopted in the United Kingdom when the word was used for the first time in English in 1797, with the spelling kilogram being adopted in the United States. In the United Kingdom both spellings are used, with kilogram having become by far the more common, UK law regulating the units to be used when trading by weight or measure does not prevent the use of either spelling. In the 19th century the French word kilo, a shortening of kilogramme, was imported into the English language where it has used to mean both kilogram and kilometer. In 1935 this was adopted by the IEC as the Giorgi system, now known as MKS system. In 1948 the CGPM commissioned the CIPM to make recommendations for a practical system of units of measurement. This led to the launch of SI in 1960 and the subsequent publication of the SI Brochure, the kilogram is a unit of mass, a property which corresponds to the common perception of how heavy an object is. Mass is a property, that is, it is related to the tendency of an object at rest to remain at rest, or if in motion to remain in motion at a constant velocity. Accordingly, for astronauts in microgravity, no effort is required to hold objects off the cabin floor, they are weightless. However, since objects in microgravity still retain their mass and inertia, the ratio of the force of gravity on the two objects, measured by the scale, is equal to the ratio of their masses. On April 7,1795, the gram was decreed in France to be the weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of the metre
