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marketrent OP t1_iw09sip wrote

Michael Murphy, 11 November 2022 06:00 GMT+11.

Excerpt:

>Our theory of electromagnetism is arguably the best physical theory humans have ever made – but it has no answer for why electromagnetism is as strong as it is.

>Only experiments can tell you electromagnetism’s strength, which is measured by a number called α (aka alpha, or the fine-structure constant).

>The American physicist Richard Feynman, who helped come up with the theory, called this “one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics” and urged physicists to “put this number up on their wall and worry about it”.

> 

>In research just published in Science, we decided to test whether α is the same in different places within our galaxy by studying stars that are almost identical twins of our Sun.

>From [spectra of Sun-like stars], we have shown that α was the same in the 17 solar twins to an astonishing precision: just 50 parts per billion.

>That’s like comparing your height to the circumference of Earth. It’s the most precise astronomical test of α ever performed.

Science, DOI 10.1126/science.abi9232

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bayesian13 t1_iw4wzzi wrote

wouldn't it be better to say, why is the relative strengths of the electromagnetic force and the gravitational force what it is? this article claims that what the fine structure constant is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-structure_constant

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FranticPonE t1_iw659iq wrote

Nah, it'd be better to skip the entire, totally pointless discussion of what the fine structure constant is in the friggen abstract.

The entire, actual paper is "we measured the fine structure constant (variable actually, but anyway) on some distant stars and it's still the same" that's it. Stupid clickbait otherwise.

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