> Metrology > Instrumentation > arghXiv:2601.06805
Re-examination of a Torsion-Balance Result Against Electrostatic and Convective Accounts
Abstract: Three accounts other than the received one are commonly offered for the deflection observed in a well-known eighteenth-century torsion-balance experiment: residual electrostatic attraction, convective circulation within the case, and a systematic error in the optical readout. Each is testable. We rebuilt the apparatus to the published dimensions and tested all three: the case was earthed and the deflection was unchanged to 0.4 per cent; the case was evacuated to 10 Pa and the deflection was unchanged to 0.2 per cent; the readout was replaced with an interferometric one and the deflection was unchanged to 0.05 per cent. We publish the null results together, since each has been offered separately and none, so far as we can establish, had previously been tried.