No prospect for change

A recent discussion by Martin Milton in the November issue of this journal was critical of many published objections to the proposed new International System (SI) measurement units (and in particular the definition of the mole) on the grounds that many objectors had proposed new terms in attempts to clarify thinking and that it is impractical to achieve consensus on such proposals. This discussion in response argues that those criticisms miss the point of the objectors’ arguments and are perhaps more appropriately directed at both the current and the new SI itself. A primary example of a neologism in the SI is the term “amount of substance.” The many substantive problems with the new SI remain unaddressed by its proponents. Many important consequences of exactly fixing multiple inter-dependent fundamental physical constants as the basis of the world’s measurements would appear not to have been considered by the global institutions responsible for the world’s measurement units.