Konstantin K.

Likharev

Essential Graduate Physics

Lecture Notes and Problems
Beta version, first released February 2014

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~klikharev/EGP/

Appendix CA

Selected Physical Constants

Symbol
c
G

e
me
mp

0
0
kB

Quantity

SI value
and unit

Gaussian value
and unit

Relative r.m.s.
uncertainty

speed of light
in free space
gravitation
constant
Plank
constant
elementary
electric charge
electrons rest
mass
protons rest
mass
magnetic
constant
electric
constant
Boltzmann
constant

2.99 792 458108

m/s
6.67 41011
m3/kgs2
1.05 457 161034
Js
1.60 217 6410-19
C
0.91 093 821030
kg
1.67 262 161027
kg
410-7
N/A2
8.85 418 781 710-12
F/m
1.38 065 510-23
J/K

2.99 792 4581010

cm/s
6.67 4108
cm3/gs2
1.05 457 161027
ergs
4.80 320 41010
statcoulomb
0.91 093 821027
g
1.67 262 161024
g

0
(defined value)

0
(defined value)
0
(defined value)

1.38 065 510-16

erg/K

~1.510-4
~510-8
~310-8
~510-8
~510-8

~510-6

Comments:
1. The fixed value of c was defined by an international convention in 1983, in order to extend the
official definition of a second (as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding
to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium-133 atom) to that of
a meter. The values are back-compatible with the legacy definitions of the meter (initially, as the
1

The listed numerical values of the constants are from the most recent NIST review: P. J. Mohr et al., Rev. Mod.
Phys. 80, 633 (2008), besides the newer results for kB - see B. Fellmuth et al., Metrologia 48, 382 (2011), and for
- see R. Bouchendria et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 080801 (2011).
2014-2015 K. Likharev

Essential Graduate Physics

CA: Constant Appendix

1/40,000,000-th part of the Earth meridian length) and the second (for a long time, as the 1/(246060)
= 1/86,400-th part of the Earth rotation period), within the experimental errors of those measures.
2. 0 and 0 are not really the fundamental constants; in the SI system of units one of them (say,
0) is selected arbitrarily,2 while the other one is defined via relation 00 = 1/c2.
3. The Boltzmann constant kB is also not quite fundamental, because its only role is to comply
with the independent definition of the kelvin (K), as the temperature unit in which the triple point of
water is exactly 273.16 K. If temperature is expressed in energy units kBT (as is done, for example, in
the SM part of this lecture note series), this constant disappears altogether.
4. The dimensionless fine structure (Sommerfeld s) constant is numerically the same in
any system of units:
e 2 / 4 0 c in SI units
1
1
-3
2

,
7.29 735 257 10
137
.
0359990
137
e

c
/
in
Gaussian
units

and has been measured with much smaller r.m.s. uncertainty (~510-10) than the component constants.

Note that the selected value of 0 may be changed (a bit) in a few years - see, e.g., D. Newell, Phys. Today 67,
No. 7, pp. 35-41 (2014).

Selected Physical Constants

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