Physicists Nail Down the ‘Magic Number’ That Shapes the Universe

[DGUtley]

Physicists Nail Down the ‘Magic Number’ That Shapes the Universe

A team in Paris has made the most precise measurement yet of the fine-structure constant, killing hopes for a new force of nature.
As fundamental constants go, the speed of light, c, enjoys all the fame, yet c’s numerical value says nothing about nature; it differs depending on whether it’s measured in meters per second or miles per hour. The fine-structure constant, by contrast, has no dimensions or units. It’s a pure number that shapes the universe to an astonishing degree — “a magic number that comes to us with no understanding,” as Richard Feynman described it. Paul Dirac considered the origin of the number “the most fundamental unsolved problem of physics.” Physicists have more or less given up on a century-old obsession over
where alpha’s particular value comes from; they now acknowledge that the fundamental constants could be random, decided in cosmic dice rolls during the universe’s birth. But a new goal has taken over.

Today, in a new paper in the journal Nature, a team of four physicists led by Saïda Guellati-Khélifa at the Kastler Brossel Laboratory in Paris reported the most precise measurement yet of the fine-structure constant. The team measured the constant’s value to the 11th decimal place, reporting that α = 1/137.03599920611. (The last two digits are uncertain.)

Note: this is so far over my head.....
https://www.quantamagazine.org/physi...tm_source=digg

Fine_Structure_2880x1620_Lede.jpg

[Standing Wolf]

Physicists Nail Down the ‘Magic Number’ That Shapes the Universe

A team in Paris has made the most precise measurement yet of the fine-structure constant, killing hopes for a new force of nature.
As fundamental constants go, the speed of light, c, enjoys all the fame, yet c’s numerical value says nothing about nature; it differs depending on whether it’s measured in meters per second or miles per hour. The fine-structure constant, by contrast, has no dimensions or units. It’s a pure number that shapes the universe to an astonishing degree — “a magic number that comes to us with no understanding,” as Richard Feynman described it. Paul Dirac considered the origin of the number “the most fundamental unsolved problem of physics.” Physicists have more or less given up on a century-old obsession over
where alpha’s particular value comes from; they now acknowledge that the fundamental constants could be random, decided in cosmic dice rolls during the universe’s birth. But a new goal has taken over.

Today, in a new paper in the journal Nature, a team of four physicists led by Saïda Guellati-Khélifa at the Kastler Brossel Laboratory in Paris reported the most precise measurement yet of the fine-structure constant. The team measured the constant’s value to the 11th decimal place, reporting that α = 1/137.03599920611. (The last two digits are uncertain.)

Note: this is so far over my head.....
https://www.quantamagazine.org/physi...tm_source=digg

Attachment 33283

I had to Google "fine-structure constant" and this is the beginning of the Wikipedia entry.

In physics, the fine-structure constant, also known as Sommerfeld's constant, commonly denoted by α (the Greek letter alpha), is a fundamental physical constant which quantifies the strength of the electromagnetic interaction between elementary charged particles. It is a dimensionless quantity related to the elementary charge e, which denotes the strength of the coupling of an elementary charged particle with the electromagnetic field, by the formula 4πε₀ħcα = e². As a dimensionless quantity, its numerical value, approximately

1/137, is indepen

dent of the system of units used.


Oh, that!

Here I thought it was 42.

[Dr. Who]

I had to Google "fine-structure constant" and this is the beginning of the Wikipedia entry.

In physics, the fine-structure constant, also known as Sommerfeld's constant, commonly denoted by α (the Greek letter alpha), is a fundamental physical constant which quantifies the strength of the electromagnetic interaction between elementary charged particles. It is a dimensionless quantity related to the elementary charge e, which denotes the strength of the coupling of an elementary charged particle with the electromagnetic field, by the formula 4πε₀ħcα = e². As a dimensionless quantity, its numerical value, approximately

1/137, is indepen

dent of the system of units used.


Oh, that!

Here I thought it was 42.

I was about to post when I read the subject line, that I thought the answer was going to be 42, but you beat me to it.