how are the units for physical constants determined?

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It seems like the units for the constants are determined just by cancelling units in the equation that aren’t wanted in the answer. This seems unscientific to me though so it feels like there must be a more thorough way

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Anonymous 0 Comments

No, you have it pretty much right. An equation necessarily needs the same units on both sides, so physical constants must have the appropriate units to make that happen.

In practice, since we’re getting physical constants by measuring the quantities in one of the equations in which they appear, we’re deriving their units by multiplying or dividing the units of our measurements. For example, E = (Boltzmann constant)T lets us compute the Boltzmann constant by dividing the internal energy of a gas by its temperature, which necessarily leads to units of joules (energy) per Kelvin (temperature).

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