Domain of Science | The Speed of Light is NOT Fundamental. But THIS is. @domainofscience | Uploaded 3 years ago | Updated June 27 2024
This is my journey to find all of the fundamental constants of nature which took some surprising turns. Check out Brilliant who sponsored part of this video: https://brilliant.org/dos
When you learn physics, you very quickly encounter the physical constants of nature, things like the gravitational constant, the speed of light in a vacuum, planck's constant, the elementary charge things like that. These are numbers which we believe are the same everywhere in the universe, for all time. They are baked into our laws of physics and are very special, because if they were even a few percent different, then the Universe wouldn’t exist and neither would we. They are also fundamental because we can’t derive them from any underlying theory, we just have to take them as being true.
So I wanted to go on a quest to find all of the fundamental physical constants and collect them all together so you can see them all in one place, because that’s the kind of thing I do on this channel. So this video is the story of me doing that. But it took some fascinating twists and turns along the way, and the final set was definitely not what I was expecting, because it doesn’t actually include the ones we are familiar with, the ones I just mentioned: speed of light, gravitational constant, planck’s constant. Watch to find out why.
--- Links to source material ----
How many fundamental constants are there? By John Baez
https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/constants.html
Note that his final set is a little different to mine which is explained in his article. I chose my set to be the easiest to understand.
Here are the actual numbers for all these dimensionless constants from David Black
https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/constants_table.pdf
How fundamental are the fundamental constants?
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1412.2040.pdf
Dimensionless constants and cosmological measurements
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1304.0577.pdf
How do neutrinos get their mass?
https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/how-do-neutrinos-get-their-mass#:~:text=Trillions%20of%20neutrinos%20pass%20harmlessly,with%20any%20matter%20at%20all.&text=Neutrinos%20are%20a%20type%20of,interactions%20with%20the%20Higgs%20boson
Helpful wikipedia pages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_constant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensionless_physical_constant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-structure_constant
#physics #quantum #DomainOfScience
If you’d like to support my free educational content: https://www.patreon.com/domainofscience
--- Posters ----
DFTBA Store: https://store.dftba.com/collections/domain-of-science
RedBubble Store: https://www.redbubble.com/people/DominicWalliman
I have also made posters available for educational use which you can find here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/95869671@N08/
-- Some Awesome People ---
And many thanks to my $10 supporters on Patreon, you are awesome!
Theodore Chu
Petr Murmak
Sebastian
Eric Epstein
Alex Polo
Kevin Delaney
Reggie Fourmyle
Join the gang and help support me produce free and high quality science content:
https://www.patreon.com/domainofscience
--- My Science Books ----
I also write science books for kids called Professor Astro Cat. You can see them all here:
http://profastrocat.com
--- Follow me around the internet ---
http://dominicwalliman.com
https://twitter.com/DominicWalliman
https://www.instagram.com/dominicwalliman
--- Credits ---
Music, art, and everything else by Dominic Walliman
This is my journey to find all of the fundamental constants of nature which took some surprising turns. Check out Brilliant who sponsored part of this video: https://brilliant.org/dos
When you learn physics, you very quickly encounter the physical constants of nature, things like the gravitational constant, the speed of light in a vacuum, planck's constant, the elementary charge things like that. These are numbers which we believe are the same everywhere in the universe, for all time. They are baked into our laws of physics and are very special, because if they were even a few percent different, then the Universe wouldn’t exist and neither would we. They are also fundamental because we can’t derive them from any underlying theory, we just have to take them as being true.
So I wanted to go on a quest to find all of the fundamental physical constants and collect them all together so you can see them all in one place, because that’s the kind of thing I do on this channel. So this video is the story of me doing that. But it took some fascinating twists and turns along the way, and the final set was definitely not what I was expecting, because it doesn’t actually include the ones we are familiar with, the ones I just mentioned: speed of light, gravitational constant, planck’s constant. Watch to find out why.
--- Links to source material ----
How many fundamental constants are there? By John Baez
https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/constants.html
Note that his final set is a little different to mine which is explained in his article. I chose my set to be the easiest to understand.
Here are the actual numbers for all these dimensionless constants from David Black
https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/constants_table.pdf
How fundamental are the fundamental constants?
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1412.2040.pdf
Dimensionless constants and cosmological measurements
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1304.0577.pdf
How do neutrinos get their mass?
https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/how-do-neutrinos-get-their-mass#:~:text=Trillions%20of%20neutrinos%20pass%20harmlessly,with%20any%20matter%20at%20all.&text=Neutrinos%20are%20a%20type%20of,interactions%20with%20the%20Higgs%20boson
Helpful wikipedia pages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_constant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensionless_physical_constant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-structure_constant
#physics #quantum #DomainOfScience
If you’d like to support my free educational content: https://www.patreon.com/domainofscience
--- Posters ----
DFTBA Store: https://store.dftba.com/collections/domain-of-science
RedBubble Store: https://www.redbubble.com/people/DominicWalliman
I have also made posters available for educational use which you can find here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/95869671@N08/
-- Some Awesome People ---
And many thanks to my $10 supporters on Patreon, you are awesome!
Theodore Chu
Petr Murmak
Sebastian
Eric Epstein
Alex Polo
Kevin Delaney
Reggie Fourmyle
Join the gang and help support me produce free and high quality science content:
https://www.patreon.com/domainofscience
--- My Science Books ----
I also write science books for kids called Professor Astro Cat. You can see them all here:
http://profastrocat.com
--- Follow me around the internet ---
http://dominicwalliman.com
https://twitter.com/DominicWalliman
https://www.instagram.com/dominicwalliman
--- Credits ---
Music, art, and everything else by Dominic Walliman
