This thread reminds me of a few things, firstly, nuclear fusion: On Wed, Jun 5, 2019 at 1:00 AM jimlux <[email protected]> wrote: >
> 30 odd years ago, I heard a speech from a guy at AT&T who said that by > definition, you cannot predict technology that will result in a > revolution ahead of time. >The cost of a voice > channel in an optical fiber was literally "too cheap to meter". The Big Prediction 50 or 60 years ago was that commercial fusion power was only 10 or at most 20 years away, and that electricity would be "too cheap to meter" (though this ignores the amortized cost of building and maintaining the electric power transmission grid, something like 10 percent of electricity cost). This prediction has basically stayed the same (especially that commercial fusion is "only 10 years away") right up to the present. This is the flip side of electric motors becoming ubiquitous, again showing how hard prediction can be. Of all the universal constants (and related values such as time and frequency), the gravitational constant is the one known to the least accuracy, to only about 5 significant digits. If one is looking to 'jump ship' from their precision time studies, maybe they could collect some of those old-fashioned obsolete kilogram standards and make a really good Cavendish type experiment. Seriously, you'd only need readily available Class M1 or Class M2 weights (and of course some serious experimental methods) to measure G to near the currently known accuracy. Here are two recent popular articles on measuring G, both linking to the same Nature article: https://phys.org/news/2018-08-ways-gravitational-constant.html https://physicsworld.com/a/gravitational-constant-mystery-deepens-with-new-precision-measurements/ _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com and follow the instructions there.
