Kilogram - Glossary

Glossary

• Abstracted: Isolated and its effect changed in form, often simplified or made more accessible in the process.
• Artifact: A simple human-made object used directly as a comparative standard in the measurement of a physical quantity.
• Check standard:
  1. A standard body’s backup replica of the international prototype kilogram (IPK).
  2. A secondary kilogram mass standard used as a stand-in for the primary standard during routine calibrations.
• Definition: A formal, specific, and exact specification.
• Delineation: The physical means used to mark a boundary or express the magnitude of an entity.
• Disseminate: To widely distribute the magnitude of a unit of measure, typically via replicas and transfer standards.
• IPK: Abbreviation of “international prototype kilogram”, the mass artifact in France internationally recognized as having the defining mass of precisely one kilogram.
• Magnitude: The extent or numeric value of a property
• National prototype: A replica of the IPK possessed by a nation.
• Practical realization: A readily reproducible apparatus to conveniently delineate the magnitude of a unit of measure.
• Primary national standard:
  1. A replica of the IPK possessed by a nation
  2. The least used replica of the IPK when a nation possesses more than one.
• Prototype:
  1. A human-made object that serves as the defining comparative standard in the measurement of a physical quantity.
  2. A human-made object that serves as the comparative standard in the measurement of a physical quantity.
  3. The IPK and any of its replicas
• Replica: An official copy of the IPK.
• Sister copy: One of six official copies of the IPK that are stored in the same safe as the IPK and are used as check standards by the BIPM.
• Transfer standard: An artifact or apparatus that reproduces the magnitude of a unit of measure in a different, usually more practical, form.