Abstract
Physicists are always busy measuring things. Measurement implies methods of measurement and the adoption of arbitrary units in terms of which things are measured. Our arbitrary units have been chosen from a definitely practical standpoint and thus have no direct relation to the fundamental quantities of nature; that is, to the so-called universal constants, the quantities which are not properties of special substances but are fundamental characteristics of the physical world. Let us therefore have a look at the unit systems of physics.
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Reference
For interesting accounts of ancient and modern units see: Glazebrook, Proc. Phys. Soc. 43, 412 (1931); Gliozzi, Atti di Torino 67, 29 (1931).
Planck, Theory of Heat Radiation,Blakiston, 1914, p. 173; Lewis and Adams, Phys. Rev. 3, 92 (1914); Lewis, Phys. Rev. 18, 121 (1921); Lewis, Contributions from the Jefferson Physical Laboratory,Cambridge, 1922, Vol. 15; L.L. Whyte, Critique of Physics,Norton, 1931.
Hartree, Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 24, 89 (1928). See also Ruark, Phys. Rev. 38, 2240 (1931); Clark, Phil. Mag. 14, 291 (1932). As to the experimental values of the constants the best critical survey is that of Birge, Rev. Mod. Phys. 1, 1 (1929). See also Bond, Phil. Mag. 10, 994 (1930); Birge, Phys. Rev. 40, 228 (1932).
A number of relations of this type have been published recently: Witmer, Nature 124 180 (1929); Phys. Rev. 42 316 (1932); Perles, Naturwiss. 16 1094 (1928); Clark, Naturwiss. 21 182 (1932); Rojansky, Nature 123 911 (1929); Mills, Science 75, 243 (1932) and criticism by Birge, p. 383.
Eddington, Nature 124, 840 (1929); Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 27, 15 (1931); Proc. Roy. Soc. Al26, 696 (1930); Fürth, Zeits. f. Physik 57, 429 (1929); Bond, Proc. Phys. Soc. 44, 374 (1932); Flint, Proc. Phys. Soc. 42, 239 (1930); Beck, Heiv. Phys. Acta 6, 309 (1933); Schames, Zeits. f. Physik 81, 270 (1933); Narlikar, Nature 131, 134 (1933).
Since it is the square of the permanent moment which occurs in the temperature-dependent part of the susceptibility in the Langevin-Debye formula the relative magnitude of the polarizability and the permanent moment terms in the susceptibility is the same in the magnetic as in the electric case. See Van Vleck, The Theory of Electric and Magnetic Susceptibilities, Oxford, 1932.
Eddington, The Internal Constitution of the Stars Cambridge, 1926, Chap 1.
Jeans, Astronomy and Cosmogony Cambridge, 1928, Chap. 16.
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Condon, E.U. (1991). Where Do We Live? Reflections on Physical Units and the Universal Constants. In: Barut, A.O., Odabasi, H., van der Merwe, A. (eds) Selected Popular Writings of E.U. Condon. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3066-3_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3066-3_14
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