A Slow Carousel Ride Gauges Gravity's Pull
Charles Seife · Science · 2000
Physicists at the University of Washington, Seattle, have released the most precise measurement yet of the strength of gravity, represented by a universal constant nicknamed G, thanks to a clever new device. At last week9s meeting of the American Physical Society, they announced that they had measured big G with an error of a mere 14 parts per million--about 10 times better than previous measurements. The key to the newfound precision was keeping their experimental apparatus in constant motion.