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constants

ANALYTICS
Velocity0.0

Reference on Constants, Units and Uncertainty

github.com/r-quantities/constants ↗

The R package for CODATA constants rebuilt its symbol table on NIST's naming so future updates stop being hand work.

physical-constantscodataunitsuncertainty-propagationmetrology
◆Current state
constants exposes the CODATA recommended values of the physical constants to R, as a data frame plus symbol lists that carry units, uncertainties, or both. The package reached 1.0.0 on the 2018 CODATA release and has shipped once since, purely to track a units package update. Its surface is small and its release cadence is bound to CODATA, which revises every few years.
◆Where it's heading
The direction set at 1.0.0 was to stop being a curated convenience wrapper and become a mechanical mirror of NIST. Hand-crafted symbol names were replaced with NIST's own ASCII symbols, categories adopted NIST's, and uncertainty switched from relative to absolute — all framed by the maintainer as necessary to make future CODATA updates routine. On top of that the package gained a correlation matrix and optional integration with the quantities package, moving it from a lookup table toward something that can propagate uncertainty.
◆Prediction
Having rebuilt the symbol table specifically so CODATA revisions become mechanical, the next substantive release most likely tracks a new CODATA dataset rather than adding API. The experimental correlated-value support, disabled by default at 1.0.0, is the one part these entries flag as unfinished.

◆Recent moves

  1. 5y ago

    Compatibility fix for units 0.7-0

    A one-line compatibility fix for units 0.7-0. Maintenance to keep the units-carrying symbol lists working against their dependency.

    View source ↗
  2. 5y ago

    constants 1.0.0

    ⚡ SPARK

    The release that redefines how the package is maintained: symbols, categories and uncertainty representation all realign to NIST's published forms, explicitly so that future CODATA updates stop requiring hand curation. It also adds a correlation matrix and a quantities-backed symbol list, extending the package past lookup into uncertainty propagation.

    View source ↗
  3. 8y ago

    Unit handling fixes ahead of the 1.0.0 rebuild

    Small unit-handling fixes: the deprecated units::parse_unit() gives way to as_units(), the speed of light installs as a unit, unitless constants display 1, and Ω becomes ohm. Housekeeping in the years before the 1.0.0 rebuild.

    View source ↗