The determination of best values of the fundamental physical constants

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of how a self-consistent set of 'best values' of the fundamental physical constants for use worldwide by all of science and technology is obtained from all of the relevant data available at a given point in time. The basis of the discussion is the 2002 Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) least-squares adjustment of the values of the constants, the most recent such study available, which was carried out under the auspices of the CODATA Task group on fundamental constants. A detailed description of the 2002 CODATA adjustment, which took into account all relevant data available by 31 December 2002, plus selected data that became available by Fall of 2003, may be found in the January 2005 issue of the Reviews of Modern Physics. Although the latter publication includes the full set of CODATA recommended values of the fundamental constants resulting from the 2002 adjustment, the set is also available electronically at http://physics.nist.gov/constants.