Chapter 1513 Foreign Orders (Part 2)

"Foreign orders?" Guo Tailai couldn't help being curious: "Which aspect?"

"Maybe it's high-precision machining!" Charles shrugged and said irresponsibly, "Who knows?"

what's the situation? Charles would say this to himself inexplicably?

"It depends on the friendship." Guo Tailai didn't understand the situation, but he still replied to Charles: "If you have a good relationship, or are particularly interesting, of course you can consider it. If you have never dealt with each other, and the relationship is average, then forget it. "

"Well, then I know." Charles' posture was obviously to show the way for others.

Guo Tailai is also curious, what kind of high-precision machining still requires Charles to ask if he has time? But soon, the next day, Guo Tailai knew what it was.

"This is Mr. Peter Baker." Charles rarely brought a German to Guo Tailai: "He is the person in charge of a project at the Institute of Metrology in Berlin, Germany."

Peter is a very standard German, he shook hands with Guo Tailai sternly, and then expressed his admiration for Guo Tailai.

"Mr. T! We are very impressed with your accomplishments in processing." Mr. Peter came up to compliment you first.

"Thank you!" Guo Tailai smiled and shook hands with the other party, saying modestly.

"To make a long story short." Mr. Peter saw that he was a scientific researcher, and he didn't know how to exchange pleasantries, so he went straight to the topic: "Mr. T, do you know Big K?"

"Big K?" Guo Tailai was puzzled for a while, and after a quick turn in his mind, he remembered: "International kilogram prototype?"

The International Prototype Kilogram (The International Prototype Kilogram), referred to as IPK, is nicknamed "Big K" by ordinary researchers.

In 1878, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures made 3 replicas of the original kilogram, a platinum-iridium alloy cylinder containing 90% platinum and 10% iridium. In 1889, at the 1st International Conference of Weights and Measures, it was decided to use the one with the closest mass to the original kilogram prototype as the international kilogram prototype and store it in the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. Since then, the International Prototype Kilogram (IPK) has been kept in the basement of the headquarters of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (Paris).

The "Big K" is tightly preserved in a triple bell-shaped glass case, and there are six official replicas of the same 1 kg standard next to it. The outermost layer of glass cover is evacuated into a semi-vacuum to prevent the entry of air and impurities.

"Yes!" Hearing that Guo Tailai knew Big K, Mr. Peter laughed, which saved him a lot of trouble in explaining: "Big K has some changes that we didn't expect."

With Mr. Peter's explanation, Guo Tailai quickly knew what happened.

Although the International Bureau of Weights and Measures is very closely preserved, the "big K" still has errors due to surface adsorption and wear and scratches caused by years of use. The responsible metrologist found that after more than one hundred years of baptism, there has been an error of 50 micrograms between the original international kilogram and its copy.

An error of 50 micrograms has little impact on our daily life, but it can have a big impact in the field of cutting-edge technology. Therefore, one of the most important tasks of the current international metrology community is to redefine "kilogram" using natural constants as benchmarks.

The German Institute of Metrology and scientists from Russia, Australia and other countries jointly established the "Avogadro Project", hoping to create a perfect sphere composed of silicon 28, and redefine the unit of mass "kilogram" with the help of this silicon sphere.

The purpose of the "Avogadro Project" is to accurately measure the number of atoms in the "perfect silicon sphere", so as to determine the Avogadro constant (that is, the number of basic units contained in a mole of any substance) A new breakthrough has been made in this field, and then the standard of the mass unit "kilogram" is returned to the definition related to the constant constant.

This "perfect silicon sphere" is very close to an ideal sphere, with a diameter of about 10 centimeters, and the distance error from the center of the sphere to any point on the surface is no more than 1/30 millionth of a millimeter, or 0.3 nanometers.

"You mean, you hope I can process this silicon ball?" After listening to Mr. Peter's description, Guo Tailai's eyes brightened a lot.

"Yes!" Mr. Peter nodded: "To be precise, we separated and manufactured the purest silicon 28 from the centrifugal separator used to refine weapon-grade high-purity uranium in the former Soviet Union, and then grew it into A huge crystal, after six failed attempts, ended up with two 5kg crystal blocks."

"According to our previous plan, we planned to send these two pieces of high-purity silicon crystals to Australia, so that an optical engineer from the Australian Center for Precision Optics (ACPO) who had worked for decades could make a pair of silicon spheres." Peter said. Mister did not hide their intentions: "However, after we learned about your past, Mr. T, we have a better choice. You and ACPO each make one, and we will choose which one to use in the end."

"I'm very interested!" Guo Tailai was really interested in this extremely difficult and challenging project.

At present, Guo Tailai's processing accuracy can only reach 1 nanometer, but the surface processing ability can be lower than 1 nanometer. Of course, this is also through extremely fine grinding. Guo Tailai also wanted to know what kind of changes he would bring if he replaced all the nanorobot diamonds with artificially synthesized diamonds with the same molecular weight.

"There is a very embarrassing place." Mr. Peter seemed to be a little embarrassed. Under Guo Tailai's puzzled gaze, Mr. Peter said a little embarrassedly: "Our project is purely scientific research, so the funds are not much. In terms of processing costs, Probably not up to your usual rate Mr. T."

Have no money and want to make something good? Guo Tailai understood why Mr. Peter was embarrassed. This is normal. This kind of pure theoretical definition research sometimes may not have huge funds. After all, whether the silicon balls made by this method can be approved by the International Committee of Weights and Measures is also a problem, so the investment of the research institute may not be a desperate investment. .

"Let me make a call." Faced with this question, Guo Tailai did not directly refuse, but after thinking about it, he decided to ask.

This time Guo Tailai called Principal Gu, and it happened to be afternoon in China. After declaring his family background, Guo Tailai didn't hold back. He talked about the Avogadro project here and asked the school if he was interested in this project.

"Redefining the kilogram?" President Gu is also technically savvy. After listening to it, he asked Guo Tailai to wait for a while. After making a few other phone calls to discuss with him, he gave Guo Tailai a reply: "The professors are very grateful. interest!"

"Understood!" Guo Tailai knew the school's attitude, and he had a bottom line in his heart.

When facing Mr. Peter again, Guo Tailai also gave a clear answer: "If you allow my alma mater to join the plan, I can process one at the price of ACPO."

"No problem at all!" Mr. Peter seemed to have expected it, and gave Guo Tailai an affirmative answer on the spot: "Welcome Shuimu University to join!"