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Constant of Gravitation: Nevil Maskelyne John Henry Poynting

1. The constant of gravitation has been measured in three main ways: comparing gravitational pull of large masses to Earth, measuring attraction between Earth and a test mass using a laboratory balance, and directly measuring force between two masses. 2. The earliest measurements were made in 1774, but most recent work uses a torsion balance to directly measure force between bodies. Cavendish made the first reliable measurement in 1798 using a torsion balance. 3. Many new determinations were made between 1996-2001, but results still show discrepancies greater than apparent random errors, with values before 1982 indicating 6.670 and results after 1996 suggesting higher values near 6.67553 × 10−11 m3 s−2 kg

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66 views3 pages

Constant of Gravitation: Nevil Maskelyne John Henry Poynting

1. The constant of gravitation has been measured in three main ways: comparing gravitational pull of large masses to Earth, measuring attraction between Earth and a test mass using a laboratory balance, and directly measuring force between two masses. 2. The earliest measurements were made in 1774, but most recent work uses a torsion balance to directly measure force between bodies. Cavendish made the first reliable measurement in 1798 using a torsion balance. 3. Many new determinations were made between 1996-2001, but results still show discrepancies greater than apparent random errors, with values before 1982 indicating 6.670 and results after 1996 suggesting higher values near 6.67553 × 10−11 m3 s−2 kg

Uploaded by

nikita bajpai
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The 

constant of gravitation
The constant of gravitation has been measured in three ways:
1. The comparison of the pull of a large natural mass with that of Earth
2. The measurement with a laboratory balance of the attraction of Earth upon a test mass
3. The direct measurement of the force between two masses in the laboratory

The first approach was suggested by Newton; the earliest


observations were made in 1774 by the British astronomer Nevil
Maskelyne on the mountain of Schiehallion in Scotland. The
subsequent work of Airy and more-recent developments are noted
above. The laboratory balance method was developed in large part
by the British physicist John Henry Poynting during the late 1800s,
but all the most recent work has involved the use of the torsion
balance in some form or other for the direct laboratory
measurement of the force between two bodies. The torsion balance
was devised by Michell, who died before he could use it to
measure G. Cavendish adapted Michell’s design to make the first
reliable measurement of G in 1798; only in comparatively recent
times have clearly better results been obtained. Cavendish
measured the change in deflection of the balance when attracting
masses were moved from one side to the other of the torsion beam.
The method of deflection was analyzed most thoroughly in the late
1800s by Sir Charles Vernon Boys, an English physicist, who carried
it to its highest development, using a delicate suspension fibre of
fused silica for the pendulum. In a variant of that method, the
deflection of the balance is maintained constant by a servo control.

The second scheme involves the changes in the period of oscillation


of a torsion balance when attracting masses are placed close to it
such that the period is shortened in one position and lengthened in
another. Measurements of period can be made much more precisely
than those of deflection, and the method, introduced by Carl Braun
of Austria in 1897, has been used in many subsequent
determinations. In a third scheme the acceleration of the suspended
masses is measured as they are moved relative to the large
attracting masses.

In another arrangement a balance with heavy attracting masses is


set up near a free test balance and adjusted so that it oscillates with
the same period as the test balance. The latter is then driven into
resonant oscillations with an amplitude that is a measure of the
constant of gravitation. The technique was first employed by J.
Zahradnicek of Czechoslovakia during the 1930s and was effectively
used again by C. Pontikis of France some 40 years later.

Suspensions for two-arm balances for the comparison of masses


and for torsion balances have been studied intensively by T.J. Quinn
and his colleagues at the International Bureau of Weights and
Measures, near Paris, and they have found that suspensions with
thin ribbons of metal rather than wires provide the most stable
systems. They have used balances with such suspensions to look for
deviations from the predictions of general relativity and have most
recently used a torsion balance with ribbon suspension in two new
determinations of the constant of gravitation.

Many new determinations of G were made in the five years from


1996 to 2001 and are summarized in the table. However, despite the
great attention given to systematic errors in those experiments, it is
clear from the range of the results that serious discrepancies, much
greater than the apparent random errors, still afflict determinations
of G. In 2001 the best estimate of G was taken to be 6.67553 ×
10−11 m3 s−2 kg−1. Results before 1982 indicate a lower value, perhaps
6.670, but those from 1996 onward suggest a higher value.
Values of the constant of gravitation

yea G (in units of 10–11


author method
r m3s–2kg–1)

H. Cavendish 1798 torsion balance (deflection) 6.754

J.H. Poynting 1891 common balance 6.698

C.V. Boys 1895 torsion balance (deflection) 6.658

C. Braun 1897 torsion balance (deflection) 6.658

C. Braun 1897 torsion balance (period) 6.658

P.R. Heyl 1930 torsion balance (period) 6.669

J. Zahradnicek 1932 torsion balance (resonance) 6.659

P.R. Heyl, P. Chrzanowski 1942 torsion balance (period) 6.672

C. Pontikis 1972 torsion balance (resonance) 6.6714


Values of the constant of gravitation

G.G. Luther and W.R. Towler 1982 torsion balance (period) 6.6726

H. de Boer 1987 mercury flotation (deflection) 6.667

W. Michaelis et al. 1996 flotation (null deflection) 6.7164

C.H. Bagley and G.G. Luther 1997 torsion balance (period) 6.6740

O.V. Karagioz et al. 1998 torsion balance (period) 6.6729

J. Luo et al. 1999 torsion balance (period) 6.6699

torsion balance (null


M.P. Fitzgerald, T.R. Armstrong 1999 6.6742
deflection)

F. Nolting et al. 1999 common balance 6.6754

U. Kleinvoss et al. 1999 pendulum deflection 6.6735

J.H. Gundlach, S.M. Merkowitz 2000 torsion balance (acceleration) 6.67422

T.J. Quinn et al. 2001 torsion balance (servo) 6.67553

T.J. Quinn et al. 2001 torsion balance (deflection) 6.67565

The variation of the constant of gravitation with time


The 20th-century English physicist P.A.M. Dirac, among others,
suggested that the value of the constant of gravitation might be
proportional to the age of the universe; other rates of change over
time also have been proposed. The rates of change would be
extremely small, one part in 1011 per year if the age of the universe is
taken to be 1011 years; such a rate is entirely beyond experimental
capabilities at present. There is, however, the possibility of looking
for the effects of any variation upon the orbit of a celestial body, in
particular the Moon. It has been claimed from time to time that
such effects may have been detected. As yet, there is no certainty.

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