Abstract
I SHOULD be obliged if you would allow me to make a correction in my lecture at the Royal Institution, published in NATURE, Aug. 2, 9, and 23, on page 331. I have stated that in pieces of apparatus geometrically similar but of different dimensions, the disturbances due to uncertain convection currents are likely to be in the proportion of the seventh power of the linear dimensions. Having discussed this at some length lately with Prof. Poynting, I find that I was in error, and that in reality the disturbances would be proportional to the fifth power of the linear dimensions if the circulation of the air were so extremely slow as to be steady. If, however, its velocity were sufficient to give rise to unsteadiness, the rate at which momentum would be given to the suspended portion of the apparatus would depend on the square of the velocity, at least in part, and as the part depending on the square increased in importance the disturbance would gradually rise to the eighth power. So long, therefore, as the apparatus is small enough to prevent terms involving the square of the velocity from being appreciable, the ratio of the disturbance to the couple to be measured or the stability is the same whatever the size; but as soon as the apparatus exceeds this, then the disadvantage of size very rapidly becomes evident.
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BOYS, C. The Newtonian Constant of Gravitation. Nature 50, 571 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/050571a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/050571a0
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