In addition to the valuable kilo, the Mendeleev Research Institute in St. Petersburg has a standard meter, ampere and kelvin
What would our life turn into if the units of measurement suddenly disappeared - all these volts, grams, kelvin? Neither watch TV, nor go to the store, nor dress for the weather. And these are still flowers.
- Any receipt of information - visual, textual, auditory - is actually a measurement: when we distinguish words, symbols, images, we compare them with something, - explains Kirill Gogolinsky, director of the Mendeleev All-Russian Research Institute of Metrology. - The accuracy of measurements determines the level of economic development of the state and the pace of its development.
GREAT SEVEN
Metrology, a science that ensures the uniformity of measurements, helps to speak the same language to the whole world. If not for her, humanity could not organize trade, establish the work of engineering communications, even assemble a car.
Mendeleev Institute - the cradle of Russian metrology Photo: Oleg KUZENKOV / kp.ru
The embodiment of the measure is either a device (for example, a ruler) or an object (the same weight). Devices and objects from which numerous copies are made are called standards. Each state seeks to create as many standards as possible and apply the highest technologies for this, so as not to go to the neighbors or to France for the ideal weight every time (the main kilogram of the world is stored there).
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- Today in our country there are 164 standards, - explains the head of Rosstandart Alexei Abramov. - Russia is one of the five countries that are actively promoting metrology.
Some of the standards are stored in a “ thermos ”, a building inside a building Photo: Oleg KUZENKOV / kp.ru
54 out of 164 standards are kept at the Research Institute of Mendeleev, “the cradle of Russian metrology”. All standards of the world are born from seven basic quantities: meter (length), kilogram (mass), second (time), ampere (electric current), kelvin (temperature), mol (amount of substance) and candela (luminous intensity).
State standards are a national treasure. But this magnificent seven is the most valuable among them. And four measures - meter, ampere, kelvin and kilogram - are stored in St. Petersburg.
BEST ON EARTH
- We are the best in the world in kelvin! - say the institute. - Domestic developments are able to expand the range up to 3,473 degrees Kelvin and reduce the error in reproduction by one and a half to two times.
Kelvin occupies half a room Photo: Oleg KUZENKOV / kp.ru
Zero on the Kelvin scale equals minus 273 degrees Celsius. The standard of temperature looks far from like a thermometer: an installation of the most complex heat emitters, many lenses, two absolutely black bodies and several computers, based on quantum effects, takes half a room. Seventy percent of the parts are Russian.
The room where the kelvin "lives" is kept at a constant temperature: even a short stay of a company of people in the laboratory affects the readings.
The temperature measure consists of many emitters and lenses Photo: Oleg KUZENKOV / kp.ru
- Now we are comparing our kelvin with the Japanese, - explains the keeper of the kelvin Anatoly Pokhodun. - The process itself takes a lot of time: to compare at one point - about two hours, and yet it is necessary in many. One person cannot do it. It took ten years to prepare for this comparison.
COLD COUPLE
The king among electrical quantities is ampere. But slowly there is a reorientation to the quantum standards of volt (voltage) and ohm (resistance). Volt "lives" in a complex installation, placed in a shielded room. Measurements are carried out at ultra-low temperatures.
- The lowest temperatures are used when reproducing special electrical quantities, - explains the keeper of the volt Alexander Katkov. - Temperatures reach millikelvin. In them, thermal vibrations of atoms are so small that they do not destroy the electrical properties of materials. Volts at four kelvin are measured with an accuracy of ten to the minus eleventh power.
This is approximately what the reference volt looks like Photo: Oleg KUZENKOV / kp.ru
Essentially, a volt is a microcircuit embedded in liquid helium. “We have developed the world's only portable volt standard,” notes Kirill Gogolinsky. - With the help of it, international comparisons were carried out, and we showed the best results in the world.
Ohm also prefers extreme cold. The resistance can be traced literally by one electron.
- One of the problems is the presence of a magnetic field, - says the keeper of the ohm Yuri Semenov. - It is not easy to get the microstructures out of it. But we need to measure nano-quantities.
… And so - oh Photo: Oleg KUZENKOV / kp.ru
There is a stone table in the middle of Volt's laboratory. But this is not just a piece of furniture: it is … the pinnacle of a three-story 750-ton foundation of a separate building located within the building. The concrete "thermos" is independent of the outer walls. After all, not the slightest vibration - from the busy Moskovsky Prospekt, from the nearby Tekhnologichesky Institut metro station, from the trams running on Zagorodnoye - should not reach the holy of holies, up to a kilogram.
"THINKING" AND "GETS OLD"
If the standards of the six basic units of measurement are based on physical constants and do not depend on "iron", then the kilogram is the last artifact standard. That is, although perfect, but an object.
No caps and hoppers can save metal from “ losing weight ” Photo: Oleg KUZENKOV / kp.ru
“The world standard for the kilogram is a weight that is stored in Sevres near Paris,” explains Gogolinsky. - There are copies of it in all metrological institutes of the world. The situation is this: if you steal the primary kilogram in France, then the whole world will lose one kilogram.
The main Russian kilo (and its spare twin brother) is 125 years old. It is a weight made of an alloy of platinum and iridium with a height and diameter of 39 millimeters. A kilogram is stored under an airtight cap in a safe behind three locks in a separate bunker in a laboratory with a certain humidity and temperature, which is located in the "thermos" building.
The perfect kilogram expressed in terms of constants is a metrologist's dream Photo: Oleg KUZENKOV / kp.ru
- We take out the standard every five years for comparison with copies, - says the keeper of the kilogram Viktor Snegov. - The last time they were compared with the Parisian standard was in 1993 and in 2013.
But even in such conditions, the Russian kilogram "lost weight". So far, one microgram with a measurement error of three micrograms. But its French progenitor over time has become lighter by fifty micrograms. The reason, scientists suggest, is the movement of atoms and the microtransfer of metal particles to the supports during comparisons.
Opening a safe with a kilogram is a solemn and laborious procedure Photo: Oleg KUZENKOV / kp.ru
The previous world standard for the kilogram was much less reliable and convenient: it was a cubic decimeter of distilled water. The standard of mass involuntarily depended on the standard of length. Now there are vacuum comparators - ultra-modern scales that are able to count an object by atoms.
The comparator is a balance that can count atoms Photo: Oleg KUZENKOV / kp.ru
“Within the margin of error, our current kilogram has not changed, but the requirements are growing,” says Kirill Gogolinsky. - There is a problem not only of accuracy, but also of preservation and reproduction of the kilogram as such.
43 ZERO
The developing economy and industry require increasing the number of decimal places.
“The redefinition is long overdue: precision industries, such as pharmacology, are actively developing,” notes Alexey Abramov. - But the contribution of metrology to the economy is one percent of GDP.
The spare mass standard is also 125 years old Photo: Oleg KUZENKOV / kp.ru
The world community plans to move from man-made standards to absolutely precise quantum values in 2018.
“There are two international projects dedicated to the new standard of the kilogram,” explains Viktor Snegov. - The first is the determination of the kilogram through the Planck constant using the so-called watt-scales, which compare mechanical and electrical energy. The second is the path of the constant Avogadro and the silicon sphere.
A kilogram ball of silicon isotope 28 can be mistaken for the same weight. But there is one important difference: scientists know how many atoms are in this ball. It's - it's scary to say - about fifty septillion pieces (after five - 43 zero). If humanity moves from a weight to a sphere, then the question of what a kilogram is will be answered: "This is the mass of so many silicon-28 atoms." Comparators will help to reproduce new standards. And no aging of the metal, no discrepancies.
The main kilogram of Russia has many “ offspring ” made of steel Photo: Oleg KUZENKOV / kp.ru
- Silicon is a very stable element: it decays after billions of years, its oxidation layer is minimal, - the scientists explain. - It has a clear crystal structure, so that grinding can achieve the same number of atoms in diameter in all directions. The ball is the most optimal shape.
There are about a hundred such spheres in the world now. The first two cost two million euros: only the polishing of the purest Russian-made silicon, which took place in Australia, lasted two years.
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A technopark will appear in Lomonosov, where new standards will be created
In the struggle for independence from imports, Russia is "pressing" on metrology. A technopark will appear on the basis of the Mendeleev Research Institute in Lomonosov, where they will create new standards and develop automatic measuring systems.
“The Technopark will unite Russian developers and manufacturers of measuring equipment and the competence of Rosstandart,” says Andrey Khovanskiy, head of the investment projects department at VNIIM named after Mendeleev. - We are planning a complete exclusion of imports. If now it is 89 percent, then by 2020 it will be at least fifty.
VNIIM named after Mendeleev / kp.ru
The technopark will be fully operational in 2022. Now, on the 35.5 hectare site, there are eighteen buildings, including unique buildings: noise-immune buildings, underground laboratories. True, they need repairs. During the first stage, five industrial buildings, a logistics complex, an office building and three residential buildings for nonresident specialists will appear on the site.
Design will take a year, repair and construction two more. Everything needs 9.1 billion rubles.
VNIIM named after Mendeleev / kp.ru
First of all, the technopark will deal with automated measuring systems in the field of ecology. The plans include electrochemical measurements for medicine, metrology of "smart" cyber-physical systems, metrology of the gas and petrochemical complex. And at the same time - the development of the reference base. Moreover, residents will do this only on their own equipment.
“We are discussing a package of tax incentives for technoparks,” says Maxim Meiksin, chairman of the St. Petersburg Committee for Industry and Innovation. - The creation of measuring equipment and everything connected with it will be included in the list of activities for which tax rates will be zeroed.
About ten organizations are already ready to work in the technopark. Smolny believes that the Lomonosov Technopark will become a "serious breakthrough project."
Anna POSLYANOVA
