A SCIENTIFIC CURIOSITY
Great excitement in scientific circles was occasioned recently in Paris when it was discovered that the international metrics scale, which for 52 years has been as .closely guarded as Sevres were against the ■vibrations of heat and cold and robbery, no longer ,ia officially authentic. ■ When! the experts decided to check up the weights and measures standards a few weeks 4go they discovered* that the platinum bar had strangely increased in length , —no much, to be sure, but enough to, throw the calculations of astronomic exports aU out of gear. The variation was calculated to be about five-millionths of a metre, or what is known officially as a demitnicron. The only explanation so far advanced is that the scale when cleaned annually was disturbed ■ to such an extent : that the 1 platinuiq were displaced. The is to bo watched closely for the nexteJO year*, and if the meter again lengthens;,Washing will be abandoned, with , the probability that the molecules will again find the positions which they had in 18S9, ■ when 20. nations decided to be guided ■ henceforth by? the measurements of the platinum' .scale,
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 18444, 4 January 1922, Page 8
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187A SCIENTIFIC CURIOSITY Otago Daily Times, Issue 18444, 4 January 1922, Page 8
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