I thought a kilogram was defined as the weight of 1000 cubic centimetres (1 Litre) of fresh water at sea level ?
No, wiki has this to say:
The
kilogram (symbol: kg) is the
base unit of
mass in the
International System of Units (
SI, from the French
Le Système International d’Unités),
[Note 2] which is the modern standard governing the
metric system.
The kilogram is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram[1] (IPK),[Note 3] which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water.
It is the only SI base unit with an
SI prefix as part of its name. It is also the only SI unit that is still defined by an
artifact rather than a fundamental physical property that can be reproduced in different laboratories.
Throughout most of the world, force is measured with the SI unit
newton and the non-SI unit
kilogram-force. Similarly, the
avoirdupois (or
international)
pound, used in both the
Imperial system and
U.S. customary units, is a unit of mass and its related unit of force is the
pound-force. The avoirdupois pound is defined as exactly 0.45359237 kg,
[2] making one kilogram approximately equal to 2.2046 avoirdupois pounds.
Many units in the SI system are defined relative to the kilogram so its stability is important.
After the International Prototype Kilogram had been found to vary in mass over time, the
International Committee for Weights and Measures (known also by its French-language initials CIPM) recommended in 2005 that the kilogram be redefined in terms of a fundamental constant of nature.
[3]
No final decision is expected before 2015.
[4]