Found 2 hits - Term: platinum-iridium, Database: *, Strategy: exact
- [1] : Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)
platinum-iridium adj. standard, against which all others of the same
category are measured. usage: silly. the notion is that one of whatever
it is has actually been cast in platinum-iridium alloy and placed in the
vault beside the standard kilogram at the international bureau of
weights and measures near paris. from 1889 to 1960, the meter was
defined to be the distance between two scratches in a platinum-iridium
bar kept in that same vault -- this replaced an earlier definition as
10^-7 times the distance between the north pole and the equator along
a meridian through paris; unfortunately, this had been based on an
inexact value of the circumference of the earth. from 1960 to 1984 it
was defined to be 1650763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red line of
krypton-86 propagating in a vacuum. it is now defined as the length of
the path traveled by light in a vacuum in the time interval of
1/299,792,458 of a second. the kilogram is now the only unit of measure
officially defined in terms of a unique artifact. "this
garbage-collection algorithm has been tested against the
platinum-iridium cons cell in paris." compare golden.
see also:
golden
- [2] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)
platinum-iridium
a standard, against which all others of the same
category are measured. usage: silly.
the notion is that one of whatever it is has actually been
cast in platinum-iridium alloy and placed in the vault beside
the standard kilogram at the international bureau of weights
and measures near paris, as the bar defining the standard
metre once was.
"this garbage collection algorithm has been tested against
the platinum-iridium cons cell in paris."
compare golden.
jargon file
1997-02-20
see also:
metre garbage collection algorithm golden jargon file
Dictionary of Words and Phrases online did not found adittional definition or meaning about platinum-iridium. Last accessed:2008/09/08 11:15:46 [Total processing time: 0 seconds] |