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Equation 1 · Part 5 · The Last Artefact: Redefining the Kilogram

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1 kg=(h6.626 070 15×10−34) m−2 s1\ \mathrm{kg} = \left(\frac{h}{6.626\,070\,15 \times 10^{-34}}\right)\ \mathrm{m^{-2}\,s}
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What this part means

A raised number can be a power. When it is a label or bound, it selects a case or the upper limit of a sum; the formula’s structure distinguishes these uses.

Its job in the formula

A raised mark can be a power or an index. Its position and the surrounding notation determine which.

The passage around this formula

Inverting that gives the unit explicitly in terms of three fixed constants: 1 kg=(h6.626 070 15×10−34) m−2 s1\ \mathrm{kg} = \left(\frac{h}{6.626\,070\,15 \times 10^{-34}}\right)\ \mathrm{m^{-2}\,s}. which the SI Brochure also writes as approximately 1.475 5214 × 10⁴⁰ times the quantity h ΔνCs divided by c squared [ 1 ] . Notice what the definition does not contain: any apparatus, any material, any temperature, any place. That is the point. “The use of a constant to define a unit disconnects definition from realization”, which “offers the possibility that completely different or new and superior practical realizations can be developed, as technologies evolve, without the need to change the definition” [ 1 ] .

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Learn the underlying idea

An exponent tells how a base is used in multiplication. In x³, x is the base and 3 is the exponent: x³ = x × x × x.

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Sources cited in the surrounding passage

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