7 SI Base Units

Time ssecond
econd s(s) Electricity ampere A
quantity

quantity
Symbol

Symbol
Symbol
Unit

Unit
Area

Unit

The second is the duration of 9 192 631 770 The ampere is that constant current which,
periods of the radiation corresponding to the if maintained in two straight parallel
transition between the two hyperfine levels of the conductors of infinite length, of negligible
ground state of the caesium 133 atom. circular cross-section, and placed 1 metre apart
NPL built the world’s first accurate atomic clock in in vacuum, would produce between these
1955 and paved the way for a new definition of conductors a force equal to 2 x 10-7 newton
the second based on the caesium 133 atom. NPL’s per metre of length.
atomic clocks help the UK run on time through The ampere is difficult to realise in practice
dissemination of the national time scale and with sufficient accuracy, so it is defined via
by contributing to Coordinated Universal Time. the watt. The electrical power generated
in a controlled experiment is compared to

Length metre m
mechanical power, and using an accurate
quantity

Symbol

measurement of resistance the ampere can be

Unit

calculated (as Power = (Current)2 x Resistance).

The metre is the length of the
Luminous
candela cd
path travelled by light in vacuum

quantity

Symbol
during a time interval of 1/299
Intensity

Unit
792 458 of a second.
The speed of light is a universal The candela is the luminous intensity, in a given direction, of a source that emits
constant of nature making it monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 x 1012 hertz and that has a radiant
ideal as a length standard. At intensity in that direction of 1/683 watt per steradian.
NPL, traceability to the metre is At NPL the candela is realised using the cryogenic absolute radiometer, which
most commonly achieved using heats a black cavity first with a laser beam and then with electricity. This
the wavelength of the 633 nm radiation from an iodine-stabilised helium-neon measures the optical power in the laser beam (in watts) with an uncertainty of
laser, with an uncertainty of about 2 parts in 1011. This is equivalent to measuring better than 0.01 %. The measured laser beam is used to calibrate a photometer,
the earth’s mean circumference to about 1 mm. a detector with a filter to mimic the spectral response of the human eye.

Amount of
mole mol
quantity

Symbol

Substance
Unit

The mole is the amount of substance of a system

which contains as many elementary entities as
there are atoms in 0.012 kilogram of carbon 12.
Note: The carbon 12 atoms are unbound,
at rest and in their ground state.
Most chemical measurements require the
determination of the composition of mixtures,
rather than the absolute determination of
the amount of substance present (e.g. the

Mass kilogram kg
concentration of lead in drinking water).
quantity

Symbol

So, in general, chemists measurement amounts

Unit

of substance fractions within a mixture, rather

than amount of substance directly.
The kilogram is the unit of mass; it is equal to the

Temperature kelvin K
mass of the international prototype of the kilogram.
quantity

Symbol

Note: K, the international prototype of the kilogram

Unit

is made of platinum (90 %) and iridium (10 %) and is

kept at the International Bureau of Weights and
The kelvin, unit of thermodynamic Measures (BIPM) in France; the British copy (No. 18)
temperature, is the fraction 1/273.16 of the is kept at NPL.
thermodynamic temperature of the triple point
of water. The kg is the last remaining SI base unit to be
realised by a physical object. All standards of mass
The triple point of water is the unique must ultimately be traceable to this one object.
temperature at which the three phases of The search is on in a number of scientific
water (solid, liquid and vapour) co-exist. It is laboratories (including NPL) to try to find a way of defining the kilogram
fractionally higher than the melting point of in terms of a fundamental constant, two key approaches are being
water, being 0.01 °C or 273.16 K. pursued; generating an electrical kilogram and counting atoms.

In the next few years the whole of the SI will be changed so that all the quantities will
be defined in terms of physical constants and no physical artefacts will be used in the
new definitions.
In the UK, the International System (SI) base units are realised at the National Physical
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Laboratory (NPL).

2nd Edition www.npl.co.uk