Quantifying the Quantum Stephan Schlamminger Looks at the Origins of the Planck Constant and Its Current Role in Redefining the Kilogram
measure for measure Quantifying the quantum Stephan Schlamminger looks at the origins of the Planck constant and its current role in redefining the kilogram. child on a swing is an everyday mechanical constant (h) with high precision, measure a approximation of a macroscopic a macroscopic experiment is necessary, force — in A harmonic oscillator. The total energy because the unit of mass, the kilogram, can this case of such a system depends on its amplitude, only be accessed with high precision at the the weight while the frequency of oscillation is, at one-kilogram value through its definition of a mass least for small amplitudes, independent as the mass of the International Prototype m — as of the amplitude. So, it seems that the of the Kilogram (IPK). The IPK is the only the product energy of the system can be adjusted object on Earth whose mass we know for of a current continuously from zero upwards — that is, certain2 — all relative uncertainties increase and a voltage the child can swing at any amplitude. This from thereon. divided by a velocity, is not the case, however, for a microscopic The revised SI, likely to come into mg = UI/v (with g the oscillator, the physics of which is described effect in 2019, is based on fixed numerical Earth’s gravitational by the laws of quantum mechanics. A values, without uncertainties, of seven acceleration). quantum-mechanical swing can change defining constants, three of which are Meanwhile, the its energy only in steps of hν, the product already fixed in the present SI; the four discoveries of the Josephson of the Planck constant and the oscillation additional ones are the elementary and quantum Hall effects frequency — the (energy) quantum of charge and the Planck, led to precise electrical the oscillator.
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