Colloquium: Dr. David B. Newell, NIST

ABSTRACT:

The International System of Units (SI from the French Le Système International d’Unités) is the universally accepted method of expressing physical measurements for world commerce, industry, and science. Though officially established in 1960, the origins of the present SI can be traced back to the creation of the decimal Metric System during the French Revolution. The SI has proven to be a living, evolving system, changing as new knowledge and measurement needs arise, and once again international agreement has been reached to advance the SI to reflect contemporary understanding of the physical world.  Officially adopted November 16, 2018, by the 26th General Conference of Weights and Measures, the new SI is no longer based on definitions of units such as the meter, kilogram, and second.  Instead exact values for seven fundamental constants of nature have been adopted as the foundation upon which all SI units are realized. Gone are the definitions of the traditional base units.