• DudePluto@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    [The Fine-structure Constant] quantifies the strength of the electromagnetic interaction between elementary charged particles.

    Why the constant should have this value is not understood, but there are a number of ways to measure its value.

    Sounds like we know what it is, we just don’t know the reason for its value.

    Wikipedia link

    • ShranTheWaterPoloFan@startrek.website
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      1 year ago

      The strangeness of the Fine Structure Constant isn’t it’s value, it’s that we don’t know what it is.

      Other constants have units that explain what they are doing. Like converting miles to meters we multiply by meters/miles. But this is just a number that is needed. That’s so strange I can’t think of another example.