Saturday, May 21, 2011

Barycenter IV

Barycenter IV
Andre Willers
21 May 2011

Synopsis:
Measurements of Big G (Newton's Gravitational Constant) have been warped by the hidden assumption that small g (Earth's gravitational attraction at the surface) remains constant . But it fluctuates depending on the barycenter .

Discussion :
Measurement techniques :
Torsion Balance or Free-hanging pendulums .
See NewScientist 23 Apr 2011 p45
Both require the hidden assumption that the rate of change of g in two horizontal dimensions is zero .

But it is not .
The experimental apparatus is orbiting around the barycenter , changing the g vectors
And they did not compensate for this . After two centuries .

GRRR !
We expected better .

The order of G error (10^-4 ) fits the barycenter discrepancy .

Humans will have to do better than this if they expect to survive .

You get a big fat D minus .

Andre

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