Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2869–2872 (2000)Measurement of Newton's Constant Using a Torsion Balance with Angular Acceleration FeedbackReceived 5 June 2000; published in the issue dated 2 October 2000 We measured Newton's gravitational constant G using a new torsion balance method. Our technique greatly reduces several sources of uncertainty compared to previous measurements: (1) It is insensitive to anelastic torsion fiber properties; (2) a flat plate pendulum minimizes the sensitivity due to the pendulum density distribution; (3) continuous attractor rotation reduces background noise. We obtain G = (6.674215±0.000092)×10-11m3kg-1s-2; the Earth's mass is, therefore, M⊕ = (5.972245±0.000082)×1024kg and the Sun's mass is M⊙ = (1.988435±0.000027)×1030kg. © 2000 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.2869
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.2869
PACS:
04.80.-y, 06.20.Jr, 96.60.Bn, 97.10.Nf
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