How do scientists come up with constants for equations?
In: Physics
Measurement, guesswork, and agreement.
Take *g*, the agreed-upon value for the net acceleration towards Earth’s center. It was first established by measurements done in Paris, simply by dropping objects and measuring how fast they accelerated. At the time, it was known that this acceleration would differ depending on where in the world one is, so the measured value was adjusted by an estimated amount to account for elevation and distance from the equator.
Further measurements and understanding of physics have led to our current state of understanding; we know to within a very close degree of error the exact value for any point on earth. But we still need a constant for general reference, so the international scientific community has come to an agreed-upon value of 9.80665 m/s^2 for *g*, despite the fact that nowhere on earth has that exact value.
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