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The reason for this is that the choice of a system of units may arbitrarily select any physical constant as its basis, making the question of which constant is undergoing change an artefact of the choice of units. [5] [6] [7] For example, in SI units, the speed of light has been given a defined value in 1983. Thus, it was meaningful to ...
Some key dimensionless quantities (thought to be constant) that are related to the speed of light (among other dimensional quantities such as ħ, e, ε 0), notably the fine-structure constant or the proton-to-electron mass ratio, could in principle have meaningful variance and their possible variation continues to be studied. [29]
A physical constant, sometimes fundamental physical constant or universal constant, is a physical quantity that cannot be explained by a theory and therefore must be measured experimentally. It is distinct from a mathematical constant , which has a fixed numerical value, but does not directly involve any physical measurement.
The speed at which light propagates through transparent materials, such as glass or air, is less than c; similarly, the speed of electromagnetic waves in wire cables is slower than c. The ratio between c and the speed v at which light travels in a material is called the refractive index n of the material (n = c / v ).
The four universal constants that, by definition, have a numeric value 1 when expressed in these units are: c, the speed of light in vacuum, G, the gravitational constant, ħ, the reduced Planck constant, and; k B, the Boltzmann constant.
In the June 2013 issue of the American Journal of Physics, Hankins, Rackson, and Kim repeated the Greaves et al. experiment intending to obtain with greater accuracy the one-way speed of light. [28] This experiment assumed that the signal return path to the measuring device has a constant delay, independent of the end point of the light flight ...
The curve of fastest descent is not a straight or polygonal line (blue) but a cycloid (red).. In physics and mathematics, a brachistochrone curve (from Ancient Greek βράχιστος χρόνος (brákhistos khrónos) 'shortest time'), [1] or curve of fastest descent, is the one lying on the plane between a point A and a lower point B, where B is not directly below A, on which a bead slides ...
It is described by the equation v = H 0 D, with H 0 the constant of proportionality—the Hubble constant—between the "proper distance" D to a galaxy (which can change over time, unlike the comoving distance) and its speed of separation v, i.e. the derivative of proper distance with respect to the cosmic time coordinate.