The Genealogy of Constants

Eleven headwaters — seven fixed exactly by the 2019 SI, four that nature makes us measure — and every other constant of physics woven downstream from them. Every derivation on this page is recomputed live and checked against CODATA 2022.
The modern SI (2019 → )
Constants are the bedrock; the units flow FROM them. Flip to Pre-2019 to see the world where a platinum cylinder in Paris defined the kilogram.

Reading the weave

exact — fixed by definition
exact — woven from exact parents
measured — nature keeps the digits
SI unit — downstream since 2019
Click any constant for its card and live derivation. Trace to headwaters lights up its full ancestry. Hover a node to preview its upstream weave.
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