Why are the kilogram, ampere, kelvin, and mole still considered base units and not derived? Given their current definitions, they're purely defined in terms of other units and cannot be independently measured, right?
Show this thread
-
> not some kind of fundamental value. This just makes the base/derived split weird though. The name implies (and it used to mean AFAIK) a unit that was fundamentally required to describe the universe. If its definition is in entirely terms of other units, that's not the case
Granted I also don't fully understand how the modern definition of the kg even works since it seems like it defines it in terms of the mass of a photon but photons have no mass so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
-
-
It has energy so it's just E = mc2 I guess? Just glad it's above my pay grade to think about these things
-
Right, that's how you get to J = kg*m^2*s^-1, but photons have no mass so wtf I should have gone to college
- 4 more replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.