Sep 14
The kilogram was originally defined as the mass of one liter of water at standard pressure and the temperature at which it is densest (which is about 4 °C). The unit of pressure is the newton per square meter, where a newton is the force that accelerates one kilogram one meter per second squared. Thus the kilogram was defined in terms of itself. Since water is nearly incompressible, this circularity is of no consequence — with each iteration of the “circle,” the resulting measure of a kilogram rapidly converges. Even so, to clear up any confusion, the kilogram was later defined as the mass of a certain piece of metal in Sèvres.
