General Conference on Weights and Measures

Adopted by the 11th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) in 1960, it is abbreviated SI in all languages.

After lengthy discussion the 11th General Conference on Weights and Measures (11th CGPM), meeting in Paris in October 1960, formulated a new International System of Units (abbreviated SI). The SI was amended by subsequent convocations of the CGPM. The following base units have been adopted and defined:

The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM), with diplomatic representatives of some 40 countries, meets every six years to consider reform. The conference selects 18 scientists who form the International Committee for Weights and Measures that governs the bureau.

In 2018 the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) agreed that on May 20, 2019, the ampere would henceforth be defined such that the elementary charge would be equal to 1.602176634 × 10⁻¹⁹ coulomb. Earlier the ampere was defined as the constant current which, if maintained in…

The 2018 General Conference on Weights and Measures decided that effective from May 20, 2019, the unit would be defined such that the Boltzmann constant would be equal to 1.380649 × 10⁻²³ joule per kelvin. This unit was originally defined as 100/27,316 of the triple point (equilibrium…

…with a changing mass, the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) agreed in 2011 to a proposal to begin to redefine the kilogram not by a physical artifact but by a fundamental physical constant. The constant chosen was Planck’s constant, which was to be defined as equal to 6.62607015…

The General Conference on Weights and Measures defined the mole as this number for the International System of Units (SI) effective from May 20, 2019. The mole was previously defined as the number of atoms determined experimentally to be found in 12 grams of carbon-12. The…