links for 2009-06-20

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There's a minor scandal in fundamental physics that doesn't get talked about much, and it has to do with the

Uncle Al forgot the all important uncertainties (I hope my alignment of value over uncertainty is preserved when it gets posted):

6.67349x ... (Wuhan PRC time of swing)
0.00018

-vs-

6.674215 ... (U Wash torsion balance)
0.000092

-vs-
6.67407x ... (Swiss beam balance)
0.00022

I also added an "x" as a placeholder for the two values that are less precise than the U Wash result so that detail is a bit more visible. Notice that the UWash value is twice as precise as the other two values, and is within one std deviation of the Swiss result - but is four (or eight) std deviations from the new result.

Odds tend to favor one systematic error (by the new group) over two systematic errors by the other two groups, but Gravity measurements have *always* been difficult.

By CCPhysicist (not verified) on 22 Jun 2009 #permalink