Present Status of Precise Information on the Universal Physical Constants. Has the Time Arrived for Their Adoption to Replace Our Present Arbitrary Conventional Standards?

Abstract

Three years ago Dr. E. R. Cohen and I prepared and published our latest (1955) least-squares adjustment of all the most reliable data then available bearing on the universal constants of physics and chemistry. Since then new data and information have been accumulating so that a year or two from now the time may perhaps be propitious for us to prepare a new adjustment taking the newly-gained knowledge into account. At present it is too early to attempt such a re-evaluation since many of the investigations and re-determinations now under way are still far from completed. I shall be obliged, therefore, to content myself in this talk with a description of the sources of information upon which our 1955 evaluation was based, mentioning however, the weak points where these are now either well established as errors or at least considered to be under strong suspicion of systematic error. I shall also tell you a little of some of the new re-evaluations now under way.

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