Scientists Have Developed a New Way to Measure The Ever-Elusive Gravitational Constant

Physicists used a pair of vibrating rods to measure the constant.

The new technique has relatively high uncertainty, but they hope that future improvements will give them a new way to nail down this elusive constant.

Our understanding of gravity is based on the G. When he developed his universal theory of gravitation over 300 years ago, there was a constant in his equations.

The constant tells us the fundamental strength of gravity, or the strength of the attraction between two objects with different amounts of mass.

This constant cannot be calculated from any theory. Measurement and experimentation are the only ways to find it.

Since gravity is the weakest of the forces, we don't know much about the value of the constant.

The only way to resolve this situation is to use as many different methods as possible. A new method was developed for measuring the constant.

A suspended metal bar was used by dual and his team. They measured how much vibrated the bar was. Two bars weren't touching each other. The other bar was set in motion by the first vibrating bar.

(ETH Zurich)

The blue rod moves due to the force of gravity. The tiny movements of the rods are detected by four lasers.

This is a new method of measuring the constant that uses a system instead of a static one.

The physicists were able to get their measurement with a dynamical system.

The measurement of the constant produced by the team is 2.2 percent higher than the accepted value, but it is still uncertain.

We need to reduce this uncertainty by a lot to get a reliable value. With a slightly modified experimental setup, we can determine the constant with even greater precision.

The team hopes that the new technique will provide an independent measurement of the constant. Physicists will be able to understand the fundamental nature of gravity thanks to an improved measurement.

This article was published in the past. The original article is worth a read.