NPL is the home of UK time, and we are responsible for upholding the national time scale – through daylight savings, seasonal changes and more, you can rely on us to keep NPL’s clocks ticking in time with the international reference time scale.
Did you know there are lots of other places in your home that might bring NPL to mind? Have a ponder on these while you enjoy your extra hour in bed.
1. ⌚ Your smart watch automatically updates when the clocks change, through updates rolled out from your phone provider. We are able to agree on an international reference time scale (UTC) because we all agree on the duration of one second, and we compare the UK standards with similar standards all over the world.
2. ⚖️ 1 kilogram is the same in the UK as it is everywhere else – from Austria to Australia. NPL was involved in redefining the kilogram in 2019, which is now based on a fundamental constant of nature rather than tracing back to a physical object.
3. 🥤 Fancy a smoothie? Get the current flowing by plugging in your blender, and you can measure that current using the ampere. Not to be confused with currants – though these might work better in your smoothie.
4. 💡 Got some nice kitchen spotlights on a dimmer? Turn them down and you’re reducing their luminous intensity – which you can measure using the candela.
5. 🍨 Your fridge has a big job to do in keeping your food cold and safe, and ensuring its freezer compartment is much colder so your ice cream stays solid. At NPL, we measure very high temperatures, very low temperatures, and every fraction of a degree in between. We use the degree Celsius for everyday temperature measurements, but the kelvin is the SI base unit of thermodynamic temperature.
6. 🍰 Fancy a slice of cake? If you’re diabetic, you might want to check your blood sugar concentration first, which you can do with a glucose monitor. These machines measure the concentration of glucose in your blood, in millimoles of glucose per litre of blood – the mole being SI unit for chemical amount.
7. 📏 Imagine how difficult it would be to get an oven installed in your beautiful, fitted kitchen if we didn’t all agree on what 1 metre is? Thankfully, because of the SI, you can be sure your oven will fit when you get it home. Just please don’t ask us how to change the clock on it – there are some mysteries even NPL can’t solve!