scholarly journals SI-2019 and prospects for improving the accuracy of electrical measurements

Author(s):  
Iurii Pavlenko ◽  
Alexander Kolbasin ◽  
Olena Vаsileva

Increasing requirements for the accuracy of measurements have led to the need to revise the existing International System of Units (SI). The important element of the SI-2019 reform is “the establishment of the SI base units through seven defining constants, the numerical values of which are fixed”. The approach to the establishment of the measurement units has fundamentally changed. If earlier a definition was given of how the unit is realized, now only the exact numerical values of the fundamental constants are fixed, and their values are expressed in the corresponding SI units. Measurement units are determined on the basis of known physical laws, which include certain fundamental constants. The article analyzes the changes in SI-2019 related to electrical measurements, and also discusses the prospects for the development of accurate electrical measurements.

Author(s):  
Barry N. Taylor

A revised International System of Units (SI) is expected to be established by the 26th General Conference on Weights and Measures when it convenes in November 2018 and to be put into practice starting on 20 May 2019, World Metrology Day. In consequence, the article published in this journal in 2011, “The Current SI Seen from the Perspective of the Proposed New SI,” is updated in this paper, which provides an opportunity to again demonstrate the usefulness of the quantity calculus in dealing with quantities and units. The quantity calculus and the seven defining constants of the current and revised SI are reviewed, and expressions for the seven current and revised SI base units are given. Relationships between the magnitudes of revised and current SI units and expressions for the numerical values of current SI defining constants expressed in revised SI units are also obtained using the quantity calculus.


Author(s):  
Ian M. Mills ◽  
Peter J. Mohr ◽  
Terry J. Quinn ◽  
Barry N. Taylor ◽  
Edwin R. Williams

We review the proposal of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (Comité International des Poids et Mesures, CIPM), currently being considered by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (Conférences Générales des Poids et Mesures, CGPM), to revise the International System of Units (Le Système International d'Unitès, SI). The proposal includes new definitions for four of the seven base units of the SI, and a new form of words to present the definitions of all the units. The objective of the proposed changes is to adopt definitions referenced to constants of nature, taken in the widest sense, so that the definitions may be based on what are believed to be true invariants. In particular, whereas in the current SI the kilogram, ampere, kelvin and mole are linked to exact numerical values of the mass of the international prototype of the kilogram, the magnetic constant (permeability of vacuum), the triple-point temperature of water and the molar mass of carbon-12, respectively, in the new SI these units are linked to exact numerical values of the Planck constant, the elementary charge, the Boltzmann constant and the Avogadro constant, respectively. The new wording used expresses the definitions in a simple and unambiguous manner without the need for the distinction between base and derived units. The importance of relations among the fundamental constants to the definitions, and the importance of establishing a mise en pratique for the realization of each definition, are also discussed.


Author(s):  
B. Fellmuth ◽  
J. Fischer ◽  
G. Machin ◽  
S. Picard ◽  
P. P. M. Steur ◽  
...  

In 2018, it is expected that there will be a major revision of the International System of Units (SI) which will result in all of the seven base units being defined by fixing the values of certain atomic or fundamental constants. As part of this revision, the kelvin, unit of thermodynamic temperature, will be redefined by assigning a value to the Boltzmann constant k . This explicit-constant definition will define the kelvin in terms of the SI derived unit of energy, the joule. It is sufficiently wide to encompass any form of thermometry. The planned redefinition has motivated the creation of an extended mise en pratique (‘practical realization’) of the definition of the kelvin ( MeP -K), which describes how the new definition can be put into practice. The MeP -K incorporates both of the defined International Temperature Scales (ITS-90 and PLTS-2000) in current use and approved primary-thermometry methods for determining thermodynamic temperature values. The MeP -K is a guide that provides or makes reference to the information needed to perform measurements of temperature in accord with the SI at the highest level. In this article, the background and the content of the extended second version of the MeP -K are presented.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-118
Author(s):  
Nadine de Courtenay

Abstract The philosophical significance attached to the construction of systems of units has traditionally been confined to the notion of convention, while their adoption was considered to be the exclusive province of the history and sociology of science. Against this tradition, a close articulation between history, philosophy, and sociology of science is needed in order to analyse the recent reform of the International system of units (SI). In the new SI, units are redefined on the basis of certain fundamental constants of nature, established by physical theories, whose values are fixed without uncertainty. The purpose of this article is to show that the redefinition of SI units, far from being a convention, involves a holistic reconstruction of our concepts of quantities from accepted theoretical laws. Fixing the values of the defining constants stabilizes these laws within the framework of physics through a twofold adjustment procedure that ensures both a semantic coordination between theory and world and an intersubjective coordination between human agents required by social activities. This double adjustment results in closely entwining the pursuit of truth as correspondence and truth as coherence which turn out to be complementary, thus highlighting the anthropological underpinnings of scientific realism.


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