What is the value of G?
Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - 07:30
in Mathematics & Economics
NIST has taken part in a new push to address a persistent and growing problem in physics: the value of G. The Newtonian constant of gravitation, used to calculate the attractive force of gravity between objects, is more than 300 years old. But although scientists have been trying to measure its value for centuries, G is still only known to 3 significant figures. By contrast, other constants have been measured with much greater precision; the mass of the electron in kilograms, for example, is known to about 8 digits.i