Cavendish experiment: measuring the gravitational constant
Medida de la constante de gravitación (experimento de Cavendish)
- Date
- 1798 · confidence high
- Place
- Clapham, London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Henry Cavendish
- People
- 👤 Henry Cavendish1731–1810
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
With a torsion balance, Cavendish measures the attraction between lead spheres and obtains the density of the Earth, equivalent to the first determination of G. It is the first laboratory measurement of gravity between ordinary bodies.
Cavendish did not explicitly calculate G; the value was derived later from his measurement of the Earth's density (5.45 g/cm3).
What it led to
- Numerical value of G and the mass of the Earth, the Sun and the planets
- Precision metrology
- Laboratory tests of gravitation (equivalence principle, fifth force)
Built on
Made possible
- Zero-length spring gravimeter1932-1934
- Gravimeters
- Precision torsion balances