Measuring Acceleration with Light | NIST
March 29, 2017 – Most people have never seen an accelerometer — a device that measures change in velocity — and wouldn’t know where to look. Yet accelerometers have become essential to modern life, from […]
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Better Flowmeters with the Big Blue Ball | NIST
Last year, upwards of 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas were delivered to customers in the United States, and when it changed hands, nearly every cubic foot was measured using gas flowmeters. The accuracy […]
Legal Metrology | NIST
A pound is a pound is a pound, right? Luckily, when you buy something in the United States, you can be extremely confident that you are getting the quantity you paid for, whether it’s a […]
Noise, Temperature, and the New SI | NIST
NIST has recently made substantial improvements to its Johnson-noise thermometry system, which is playing a vital role in the worldwide effort to determine the value of a key physical constant in time for the impending […]
NIST-4 Watt Balance
A high-tech version of an old-fashioned balance scale at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has just brought scientists a critical step closer toward a new and improved definition of the kilogram. The […]
NPL News – Creator of the moving coil watt balance passes away
Dr Kibble worked at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) from 1967 to 1998 as an experimental physicist. He was instrumental in reshaping the International System of Units (SI), and is best known for his conception […]
NIST’s Million-Pound Weight Stack Restoration is Complete
It’s official: NIST’s 4.45-million newton (equivalent to one million pounds-force) deadweight machine – the largest in the world – is back in one piece after a colossal 16-month effort to overhaul the system for the […]
Head to Head: Photonic Pressure Sensors vs. Mercury-Based Standard
When a team of researchers at NIST’s Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML) first tested a new kind of pressure sensor two years ago, initial results showed it was faster and had higher resolution than the traditional, […]