THERMAL SCIENCE
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MEASURABLE VALUES, NUMBERS AND FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICAL CONSTANTS: IS THE BOLTZMANN CONSTANT KB A FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICAL CONSTANT?
ABSTRACT
The status of fundamental physical constants is discussed. The nature of fundamental physical constants is cleared up, based on the analysis of the Boltzmann constant. A new definition of measurable values, 'mathematical' and 'physical' numbers and fundamental physical constants is proposed. Mathematical numbers are defined as values insensitive to the choice of both units and frames of reference, whereas 'physical numbers' are dimensionless values, insensitive to transformations of units and sensitive to the transformations of the frames of reference. Fundamental constants are classified as values sensitive to transformations of the units and insensitive to transformations of the frames of reference. It is supposed that a fundamental physical constant necessarily allows diminishing the number of independent etalons in a system of units.
KEYWORDS
Boltzmann constant, entropy, fundamental constant, dimensional value, dimensionless value, lex parsimoniae, invariant relationships
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2009-08-01
PAPER REVISED: 2009-08-15
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2009-10-07
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI0904253B
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© 2026 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence


