You might think that after uncounted, but maybe trillions, of trips and falls and maybe trillions more drops and stumbles, humans might have a handle on the value of the gravitational constant. Not so. Researchers keep revising the numbers. Like you, I’m going to ask, “Who does this for a living?” I can hear the conversation now.
“Honey, I’m off to work. I’ll see you later.”
“Don’t forget we need to pack for the Disney trip.”
“Right. I can’t wait to ride the Tower of Terror. Nothing like a good and unexpected drop for a gravity scientist.”
“Be careful at work, dear. Don’t drop something on you. I haven’t paid the health insurance bill yet.”
“Me. No, the only thing I’ve been dropping is the value of the gravitational constant.”
About two centuries ago, the reclusive Henry Cavendish measured the gravitational constant, not a small accomplishment in an age preceding modern lab techniques and lasers. Ever since, some people have focused their careers on experiments that measure gravity, both for practical and for theoretical purposes. (Yeah, somebody comes up with the money to pay them) Anyway, in their continuing attempts to refine the constant, Gravitoners (I don’t know what to call them, and maybe that name makes them sound like 1950s rock group or an 80s heavy metal group) keep giving us new numbers.
Five years ago this week, French gravitoners measured the gravitational constant and found it to be 21 PPM lower than their previous measurement. The drop in measurement supposedly reflected better science; that’s what they (gravitorners) said about their equipment and their results (some gravitoners found the value 241 PPM lower). So, the 2013 value was set at 6.67545(18) x 10^-11 m^3 kg^-1 s^2. Who am I to question a figure that seems so precise?
Drop into 2018 for yet another refiguring. Groups of gravitoners in China and Russia have experimental results of 6.674484 and 6.674184 yada yada yada with exponents.** What the heck is going on? Does this mean that our falls are a bit less violent and that our scales are making us think we are losing more weight than our diets promise?
You know we all love constants. But the value in a constant is, well, CONSTANCY. Now, every time I step on a scale, I have to wonder whether or not I’m not actually losing or maintaining weight, but rather simply applying a different value to my mass. If the value keeps dropping, I’ll soon weigh the same as I currently would on the moon. Of course, the good news is that I won’t fall as hard, won’t get hurt as much by a falling object, and won’t get as much of an inverted stomach during a fall on the Tower of Terror. Wait! That might not be good news for amusement park owners and their customers. “We tried the new ride, but it wasn’t very exhilarating.”
Then, again, maybe I’ll walk with a more sprightly step, jump 21PPM farther, or keep my breathing steady during a climb up steps or hills.
Constants. They make us feel secure. Love is the one constant that binds, right? Peace is the interrupted constant most humans have sought since Cain killed Abel. Evenhanded justice is the constant constitutions are supposed to guarantee. Any challenge to constants challenges our sense of stability and security. Of course, we have no standard quantitative way of agreeing on the value of any “human” constant. The Constitution, for example, undergoes alterations through legal precedents that turn a general concept into a set of very specific nuances.
What’s next? Some researcher telling us that after examining all constants, he found that the only constant is the constantly changing nature of constants? The good news is that all dieters have lost weight effortlessly.
* Yirka, Bob. New measure of gravitational constant higher than expected. Phys.org. September 9, 2013. Online at https://phys.org/news/2013-09-gravitational-constant-higher.html Yirka writes, “This value is 21 PPM lower than the last time they ran the experiment (measurements by others have ranged as far as 241PPM lower).” So, the measurement is higher than the last measurement that was lower than the previous value by 221PPM. Thus, still lower.
**Yirka, Bob, Two new ways to measure the gravitational constant. Phys.org. August 30, 2018 online at https://phys.org/news/2018-08-ways-gravitational-constant.html
“Honey, I’m off to work. I’ll see you later.”
“Don’t forget we need to pack for the Disney trip.”
“Right. I can’t wait to ride the Tower of Terror. Nothing like a good and unexpected drop for a gravity scientist.”
“Be careful at work, dear. Don’t drop something on you. I haven’t paid the health insurance bill yet.”
“Me. No, the only thing I’ve been dropping is the value of the gravitational constant.”
About two centuries ago, the reclusive Henry Cavendish measured the gravitational constant, not a small accomplishment in an age preceding modern lab techniques and lasers. Ever since, some people have focused their careers on experiments that measure gravity, both for practical and for theoretical purposes. (Yeah, somebody comes up with the money to pay them) Anyway, in their continuing attempts to refine the constant, Gravitoners (I don’t know what to call them, and maybe that name makes them sound like 1950s rock group or an 80s heavy metal group) keep giving us new numbers.
Five years ago this week, French gravitoners measured the gravitational constant and found it to be 21 PPM lower than their previous measurement. The drop in measurement supposedly reflected better science; that’s what they (gravitorners) said about their equipment and their results (some gravitoners found the value 241 PPM lower). So, the 2013 value was set at 6.67545(18) x 10^-11 m^3 kg^-1 s^2. Who am I to question a figure that seems so precise?
Drop into 2018 for yet another refiguring. Groups of gravitoners in China and Russia have experimental results of 6.674484 and 6.674184 yada yada yada with exponents.** What the heck is going on? Does this mean that our falls are a bit less violent and that our scales are making us think we are losing more weight than our diets promise?
You know we all love constants. But the value in a constant is, well, CONSTANCY. Now, every time I step on a scale, I have to wonder whether or not I’m not actually losing or maintaining weight, but rather simply applying a different value to my mass. If the value keeps dropping, I’ll soon weigh the same as I currently would on the moon. Of course, the good news is that I won’t fall as hard, won’t get hurt as much by a falling object, and won’t get as much of an inverted stomach during a fall on the Tower of Terror. Wait! That might not be good news for amusement park owners and their customers. “We tried the new ride, but it wasn’t very exhilarating.”
Then, again, maybe I’ll walk with a more sprightly step, jump 21PPM farther, or keep my breathing steady during a climb up steps or hills.
Constants. They make us feel secure. Love is the one constant that binds, right? Peace is the interrupted constant most humans have sought since Cain killed Abel. Evenhanded justice is the constant constitutions are supposed to guarantee. Any challenge to constants challenges our sense of stability and security. Of course, we have no standard quantitative way of agreeing on the value of any “human” constant. The Constitution, for example, undergoes alterations through legal precedents that turn a general concept into a set of very specific nuances.
What’s next? Some researcher telling us that after examining all constants, he found that the only constant is the constantly changing nature of constants? The good news is that all dieters have lost weight effortlessly.
* Yirka, Bob. New measure of gravitational constant higher than expected. Phys.org. September 9, 2013. Online at https://phys.org/news/2013-09-gravitational-constant-higher.html Yirka writes, “This value is 21 PPM lower than the last time they ran the experiment (measurements by others have ranged as far as 241PPM lower).” So, the measurement is higher than the last measurement that was lower than the previous value by 221PPM. Thus, still lower.
**Yirka, Bob, Two new ways to measure the gravitational constant. Phys.org. August 30, 2018 online at https://phys.org/news/2018-08-ways-gravitational-constant.html
RSS Feed