Any constant in physics or chemistry comes from experimental design and consistency in measurements. For example, if you divide multiple of pressure and volume with the multiple of moles and temperature, you will get the constant R for any ideal gas.
However, given how small planck’s constant is, how can we assume its accuracy?
In: Physics
Based on our current understanding of physics, light, and quantum mechanics, we have a relationship between the energy of a photon of light, its frequency and the planck constant. Namely E=fh where f is the frequency.
The Planck constant is pretty unique because it shows up in quantum mechanics all over the place (Planck got a Nobel Prize for this for a reason). So, there are actually multiple ways to measure Planck’s constant because it doesn’t only show up when looking at light. For example, it also has a relationship with electron orbitals in an atom. We can be fairly certain the value is accurate because when we use the value with quantum mechanics, it correctly predicts other values that we’ve experimentally confirmed.
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