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Regulatory Changes by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

FERC Orders 888 and 889

On April 24, 1996, FERC issued Orders 888 and 889, which encourage wholesale competition.  The primary objective of these orders is the elimination of monopoly power over the transmission of electricity.  To achieve this objective, FERC requires all public utilities that own, control, or operate facilities used for transmitting electric energy in interstate commerce to: file open access nondiscriminatory transmission tariffs containing minimum terms and conditions, take transmission service (including ancillary services) for their own new wholesale sales and purchases of electricity under open access tariffs, develop and maintain a same-time information system that will give existing and potential  users the same access to transmission information that the public utility enjoys, and separate the transmission from generating and marketing functions and communications.

Throughout the universe more than 99 percent of matter looks nothing like what's on Earth.

This material that pervades the universe, making up the stars and our sun, and also – far less densely, of course – the vast interstellar spaces in between, is called plasma. Plasmas are similar to gases, and indeed are made of familiar stuff such as hydrogen, helium, and even heavier elements like iron, but each particle carries electrical charge and the particles tend to move together as they do in a fluid.

"Which particles are moving, what is the source of energy for the motion, how does a moving wave interact with the particles themselves, do the wave fields rotate to the right or to the left – all of these get classified," says Lynn Wilson who is a space plasma physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Physicists confirm surprisingly small proton radius

In the experiment described in the newly published Science article, the energy shift was determined for another transition. This leads to a new measurement of the electric charge radius of the proton. Its value of 0.84087(39) femtometres (1 fm = 0.000 000 000 000 001 metre) is in good agreement with the one published in 2010, but 1.7 times as precise.

Planck Units

Planck units are largely based upon three fundamental units, h, G, and c.

The gravitational constant is given the symbol "G".   It is a measured value used in the force equation for gravity (see below). F = Gm1m2 / r2 The m units are masses of two bodies which are separated by a distance r.   By rearranging the equation, we have G (see below). G = Fr2 / m1m2 The gravitational force, F, was measured between two masses to arrive at G.   At various times, the laboratory equipment and methods were improved to arrive at more accurate values for G.   The physics texts were not usually updated for the new values because (1) the changes were not great enough to justify the added expense to the texts, and (2) the changes were happening frequently enough to make each text obsolete before it arrived in the hands of students.   Consequently, there are numerous variations of G to be found, but the differences between them are slight. There are many systems of weights and measures used in physics.   Fundamental constants such as G often have two values according to the measuring system used.   When two such units are mixed to arrive at subsidiary units such as the planck length, the result is a completely erroneous value along with units of measure which do not apply.   Consequently, it is important to convert the various units of the fundamental constants used to the same system of units.   In may instances of late, this has not been done. Finally, there is human error involved in copying from an old text to create a new next.   This means that it is wise to check various texts to see if they all agree (they usually don't), and decide what is correct and what is not correct.   For G, the following was discovered.