In physics, a dimensionless physical constant (sometimes fundamental physical constant) is a universal physical constant that is dimensionless – having no unit attached, so its numerical value is the same under all possible systems of units. The best known example is the fine structure constant α, with the approximate value 1/137.036.
However, the term fundamental physical constant has also been used (as by NIST) to refer to universal but dimensional physical constants such as the speed of light c, vacuum permittivity ε0, Planck's constant h, or the gravitational constant G.
Read more about Dimensionless Physical Constant: Introduction, Constants in The Standard Model and In Cosmology, Variation of The Constants, Calculation Attempts
Famous quotes containing the words physical and/or constant:
“Let us hope ... that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us; and the intellectual and moral world within us, we shall secure an individual, social and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.”
—Abraham Lincoln (18091865)
“The vanity of men, a constant insult to women, is also the ground for the implicit feminine claim of superior sensitivity and morality.”
—Patricia Meyer Spacks (b. 1929)