Precision measurement, scientific personalities and error budgets: the sine quibus non for big G determinations.

Abstract

Determinations of the Newtonian constant of gravitation (big G) fit into the oftentimes-unappreciated area of physics called precision measurement-an area which includes precision measurements, null experiments and determinations of the fundamental constants. The determination of big G-a measurement which on the surface appears deceptively simple-continues to be one of Nature's greatest challenges to the skills and cunning of experimental physicists. In spite of the fact that, on the scale of the Universe, big G's effects are so large as to single-handedly hold everything together, on the scale of an individual research laboratory, big G's effects are so small that they go unnoticed…hidden in a background of much larger forces and noise sources. It is this 'smallness' that makes determining the precise value of this (seemingly unrelated to the rest of physics) fundamental constant so difficult.