Measuring Newton's Constant G

If you use planets, for the two bodies, it doesn't help because you don't know the masses of the planets.
The Earth and an apple is no help either: you don't know the mass of the Earth.

So you need two bodies in a laboratory, where you have measured the masses.

The force is small, but you can measure it by seeing how much the suspending wire twists.

ASTR 121 Home

Davison E. Soper, Institute of Theoretical Science, University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403 USA soper@bovine.uoregon.edu