What physics or physical law(s), principle(s) or relationship(s) determine the value of the physical constants? These constants have to have some value, but what exactly determines what that value is?
Constants include:
The speed of light in a vacuum.
The speed of gravity (in a vacuum?) or through anything.
The gravitational constant.
The mass of all of the fundamental particles.
The value of the electric charge of any relevant particle (electron, muon, tau, all of the six quarks, and all of their antimatter counterparts).
Therefore the ratios of the constants are also constant (i.e. - the fine structure constant; Planck's constant and the related Dirac's constant).
There has to be a reason why the constants have the value they do, but I don't what the reason(s) is. Thoughts?
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.this is known as the "Dunning -Kruger Effect" ! also see agnotology
magicwatch
Level 7
Sep 16, 2018
0
@TheAstroChuck we been here before.....and I RESPECT all your comments, it annoys me when people like johnprytz pretend to know more than you.
It is a mind-boggling question, along with several other questions with no scientific answers. Why does anything exist at all? What is conscious awareness and how does it arise. How did life begin? Why am I me? Explain how a system of cells can have free will.
I would appreciate a prompt answer. Thanks.
WilliamFleming
Level 8
Sep 16, 2018
0
@johnprytz I agree there’s nothing wrong in saying we don’t know, and to say that God did it is no answer at all. That just substitutes one mystery for another.
I’m not sure what you mean by emergent. Do you mean that those things arose through the interplay of particles of matter? As I see it, that explanation also just substitutes one mystery for another.
I don’t see how our bodies can have true free will—seems impossible. Yet we experience free will directly through conscious awareness. It seems that “WE” are something else than just bodies.
they are what they are. are you really asking why they are what they are, or how we KNOW they are what they are? to the first question, i repeat, they are what they are. to the latter, i reply, sorry, i watch the science channel and i love it but a lot of it falls out of my head when the show's over. there are mathematical calculations that help scientists describe what they have found, and which sometimes help them adjust what they think they've found. i don't know those calculations.
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genessa
Level 8
Sep 16, 2018
0
@johnprytz someone might... IF (and it's a big if, not just on this page) there is a currently knowable calculation. just as infinity works in both directions, there is the possibility that a was caused by b so we want to know what caused b, and b was caused by c, and we'll run out of alphabet before we run out of answers because the answers just keep going back. so the calculation might be r divided by s, but then you're left with what caused r and what caused s. it's like those mirrors within mirrors. i'm not saying it's not worth knowing, or trying to know. i'm saying don't let your disappointment overwhelm you if it turns out there is no end to it.
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@johnprytz i am both shattered to realize that i didn't think of it first and gratified to hear that i have godel to back me up! not bad for someone who is actually mathematically challenged! wait until i tell my guy, who professes to be amazed when i can add two and three and come anywhere near five!
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Science describes the phenomenon we experience. The more accurate science's description, the easier it is for us to understand why things are as they are and enable us to use that knowledge. There is no reason why things are as they are, they just are.
There is no reason why the speed of light is a constant.
cava
Level 7
Sep 16, 2018
0
cava:
@johnprytz The principle of sufficient reason says that everything has a cause, but leads to an infinite regress (since there is no 1st cause 
), and it is therefore absurd. The only satisfactory and necessary principle is that of contingency, that everything is contingent, everything could be otherwise. (After Finitude, Quentin Meillassoux)
As far as I know the speed of light (in a vacuum) is defined at a fixed value since the early 80s. Every other constant can be worked out with it. So what we describe as constants are just the proportions of those things to the speed of light.
Maybe there are exceptions, but I'm not aware of any. A real physicist might help out here.
Dietl
Level 7
Sep 16, 2018
0
You're right. I looked into it and there is more than just the speed of light.
It is worth pointing out and basically the answer to your original question that some constants are definied to be some value and the others are measured. You would have to look up how exactly the different constants are measured and what this measurement relies on.
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