Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Constants, Fundamental

Published

Author(s)

Barry N. Taylor, Peter J. Mohr

Abstract

This article touches upon three main topics: (1) the motivation for the romance of the next decimal place, or why the fundamental physical constants are important and why their determination with ever smaller uncertainties can have a profound effect on physics; (2) how a self-consistent set of best values of the fundamental constants is obtained, with emphasis on the 2002 least-squared adjustment of the values of the constants (the most recent comprehensive study carried out); and (3) future trends where the field is heading over the next 5 to 10 years.
Citation
Encyclopedia of Physics

Keywords

2002 CODATA recommended values of the fu, CODATA, data analysis, fundamental constants, least-squares adjustments

Citation

Taylor, B. and Mohr, P. (2008), Constants, Fundamental, Encyclopedia of Physics (Accessed May 4, 2024)
Created October 16, 2008