The Fine-Structure Constant A Strange Number

With respect to [the fine structure constant] we are in the rather humOiating position of people who have to wrap a piece of string around a cylinder to determine pi. 

There are many constants in physics, but there are only a few fundamental constants and they are special because they have universal significance. Although the fine-structure constant is the subject of this chapter, let s begin with six other basic constants of nature. These six, with their current best values, are  

Immediately, one thing stands out these constants are not approximate numbers. They are known with extreme precision. There is an uncertainty (not shown explicitly above) in each of the last digits, for example the last digit in Planck s constant or the last digit in the electron s charge. In each case, however, the digits up 

The fine-structure constant is another fundamental constant, which first appeared in Sommerfeld s work on the hydrogen atom. Its value is a = 0.00729735308. More often, this constant is written as follows  

The fine-structure constant is more than just a number. This constant can be expressed in terms of other constants namely. 

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The Fine-Structure Constant A Strange Number with Universal Significance... 

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