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physconst

Physical constants

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Syntax

const = physconst(name)

Description

const = physconst(name) returns the value of the physical constant const specified by the name argument.

example

Examples

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Open Live Script

Determine the wavelength of a 1 GHz electromagnetic wave.

freq = 1e9;
lambda = physconst('LightSpeed')/freq
lambda = 
0.2998
Open Live Script

Determine the thermal noise power per unit bandwidth in the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) channels of a receiver. Specify a receiver temperature of 290 K.

T = 290;
k = physconst('Boltzmann');

Compute the noise power per unit bandwidth, split evenly between the I and Q channels. Units are in dB.

Noise_power = 10*log10(k*T/2)
Noise_power = 
-206.9855

Input Arguments

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Name of physical constant, specified as 'LightSpeed', 'Boltzmann', or 'EarthRadius'. See Physical Constants for a list of values for physical constants used in Phased Array System Toolbox™.

Example: 'LightSpeed'

Output Arguments

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Value of physical constant, returned as a real-valued scalar. All values are in SI units.

More About

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Physical Constants

This table lists the supported constants and their values in SI units.

ConstantDescriptionValue
'LightSpeed'Speed of light in vacuum299,792,458 m/s. CODATA value commonly denoted by c.
'Boltzmann'Boltzmann constant relating kinetic energy to temperature1.380649×10−23 J/K. CODATA value commonly denoted by k.
'EarthRadius'Mean radius of the Earth6,371,000 m

Extended Capabilities

Version History

Introduced in R2011a

See Also

External Websites