The General Conference on Weights and Measures recently published its conclusions. Scientists now use the prefixes “ronna” and “quetta”, thus making it possible to express new minute or immense orders of magnitude… And to know precisely the weight of the Earth.
The Earth now weighs six ronnagrams. The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) has adopted new prefixespurred it and quetta it, in order to express minute or immense orders of magnitude.
The CGPM, which is held every four years, took place in Versailles (Ile-de-France) from November 14 to 18. This is the first time since 1991 that scientists have adopted new prefixes.
Now “the Earth weighs about six ronnagrams,” or a six followed by 27 zeros, according to the report. Until now the zetta or the yotta were used, expressing a quantity with respectively 21 and 24 zeros behind.
The need to simplify measures
If the prefixes “ronna” and “quetta” are used to name what is heaviest and largest in the universe, two other prefixes have also been created for the infinitely small and light, the “ronto”. and the “quecto”.
The rontograms or quectograms also have 27 and 30 zeros, but they accumulate after the comma. These measures have been adopted in order to facilitate the work of scientists, with a fairer and shorter unit to express.
Moreover, with the explosion of digital technologies, measurements of units deemed “fancy” such as “hella” and “octet” will now be referred to as “ronnaoctet”. This will serve to evoke the weight of digital data, in addition to that of the planets.
These decisions should meet the needs of scientists for at least 20 years, possibly 25, according to Richard Brown, head of metrology, measurement science, at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory.