The Worlds roundest object

I found this today , at first i just thought it was a clever project to produce the worlds roundest object but after watching the video i was surprised to find out its much more important than a pretty shiny ball. This could end up re defining the measurement for the kilogram once and for all.

The Avogadro project aims to redefine Avogadro's constant (currently defined by the kilogram -- the number of atoms in 12 g of carbon-12) and reverse the relationship so that the kilogram is precisely specified by Avogadro's constant. This method required creating the most perfect sphere on Earth. It is made out of a single crystal of silicon 28 atoms. By carefully measuring the diameter, the volume can be precisely specified. Since the atom spacing of silicon is well known, the number of atoms in a sphere can be accurately calculated. This allows for a very precise determination of Avogadro's constan

That s cool, saw this yesterday.

Stay tuned for MY latest youtube vid.... 'The roundest human'

Originally posted by scubagravy
That s cool, saw this yesterday.

Stay tuned for MY latest youtube vid.... 'The roundest human'

LOL Before opening this thread I honestly thought it was going to be about perfect boobs.

reply to post by PhoenixOD


That's pretty neat OP. It's nice to see that with everything else going on in the world to prove the chaos theory, much more is still happening in the realms of hard science and meaningful discovery. S/F

Its not that round.

Ever been to Walmart in the Midwest?

Yeah. That's round.

pretty sneaky sis

I believe there is an inaccuracy in this... There is a physical standard object for the meter as well. It's 100% platinum.

Some really top-end gyro spheres, the sort you use in satellites or nuclear subs for INS are spherically accurate to within less than 50 atoms.

A sphere the size of a ping-pong ball, and with no more than 50 atoms of error.

If this one's more accurate, it's even more amazing.

reply to post by PhoenixOD


Found an error in the subtitles. They say the latest approach to verifying the kilogram could be implemented as early as 2014, but the subtitle says 2040. lol Interesting vid though. Check at 9:59