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Rydberg's constant in mathcad 15 is wrong

-MFra-
21-Topaz II

Rydberg's constant in mathcad 15 is wrong

The universal constant R is incorrect in mathcad 15. Is it so for you too?

Rydbergs constant.jpg

ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
LucMeekes
23-Emerald III
(To:-MFra-)

Presently the speed of light is defined as (exactly!): and

the unperturbed ground state hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium 133 atom is (exactly):

As of (sometime) next year (see http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si-brochure-draft-2016b.pdf)

the following definitions will apply (and they will all be exact; their final exact values need to be determined, but they will be close to):

Plank constant:

Electron charge:

Boltzmann constant:

Avogadro constant:

The luminous efficacy Kcd of monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 ×10^12 hertz:

Further is determined (not exact):

With those, other natural constants become:

Luc

View solution in original post

10 REPLIES 10
LucMeekes
23-Emerald III
(To:-MFra-)

With R you probably have hit the Rankine temperature unit defined in Mathcad 15. The Rankine scale starts at absolute 0 (that is 0 K) and steps in units of the Fahrenheit scale..

So Rankine relates to Fahrenheit as Kelvin relates to Celsius.

The Rydberg constant is written and known as follows:

The value commonly denoted with R, and that has a value of about 8.314, is the Universal gas constant:

Success!
Luc

-MFra-
21-Topaz II
(To:LucMeekes)

I apologize, I did some confusion ...

universal constants.jpg

I would be very grateful if you find any imperfections in the previous list. Thank you very much

LucMeekes
23-Emerald III
(To:-MFra-)

Presently the speed of light is defined as (exactly!): and

the unperturbed ground state hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium 133 atom is (exactly):

As of (sometime) next year (see http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si-brochure-draft-2016b.pdf)

the following definitions will apply (and they will all be exact; their final exact values need to be determined, but they will be close to):

Plank constant:

Electron charge:

Boltzmann constant:

Avogadro constant:

The luminous efficacy Kcd of monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 ×10^12 hertz:

Further is determined (not exact):

With those, other natural constants become:

Luc

LucMeekes
23-Emerald III
(To:LucMeekes)

Correction, the constant Kcd (luminous efficacy...) already exists since 1980.

The definition of the second (over the frequency of emission of a caesium atom) exists since 1964, that of the speed of light since 1984.

Luc

mvenich
13-Aquamarine
(To:-MFra-)

In Mathcad 15, R is a Rankine (unit of temperature that's equal to 5/9 Kelvin)

In Mathcad Prime 4, R can mean Rydbergs constant or the universal gas constant ( I don't think Prime knows Rankine temperature units)

-MFra-
21-Topaz II
(To:mvenich)

I apologize, I did some confusion ...

Fred_Kohlhepp
23-Emerald I
(To:-MFra-)

I mistakenly called the perfect gas constant, R, with the name of another constant, that is, Rydberg. Also, while Prime supplies the correct R value (constant of perfect gases) (written with the label constant). This does not happen in mathcad 15, ie when writing R = mathcad provides a temperature.

DJF
16-Pearl
16-Pearl
(To:-MFra-)

So I'd never noticed R was built-in before this thread, and had always defined it myself.  So I did a little comparison and found something interesting. The mathcad (Prime 3.1) R value does not appear to be correct. 

2017-05-25_16-20-34.jpg

LucMeekes
23-Emerald III
(To:DJF)

That's the problem with many of those natural constants. They change all the time.

Fortunately we'll be rid of many of that sometime next year. Then R (gas constant) will be exactly known.

It's a good thing you always defined R yourself.

Luc

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