News Physics

Notorious ‘Big G’ gets a little larger

Gravitational constant is difficult to measure, but physicists calculate new number

RAISING G  Physicists measured a slightly larger value of the gravitational constant, or “Big G,” using a torsion balance (shown above).

Courtesy of T. Quinn

By Meghan Rosen

- More than 2 years ago

Nature’s slipperiest constant might be a smidge bigger than the currently accepted value.

Newton’s gravitational constant, the notoriously hard-to-measure “Big G,” is about 0.02