About

David Humpherys

David Humpherys is a physics writer and researcher focused on helping students and teachers build a clearer understanding of foundational topics in modern physics—such as universal constants, natural units, and dimensional analysis—through clear, conceptually grounded explanations. His publications offer original insights and richly illustrated explanations that reflect deep, sometimes overlooked relationships in physics.

David works at Adobe, where he applies artificial intelligence to enhance productivity for enterprise software users. He believes that creative software is a powerful tool for communicating scientific ideas, and integrates this belief into his work by using high-quality visualizations to make complex physics concepts more accessible and engaging for educators and students alike.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Humpherys, D., “Understanding the natural units and their hidden role in the laws of physics,” European Journal of Physics, 45 (5), 055802 (2024).
https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6404/ad61d3
→ This article shows that non-dimensional quantities of physical phenomena are correlated at the Planck scale, revealing a natural structure underlying the equations of physics. This structure gives a common language for quantum mechanical, electromagnetic, and gravitational phenomena in which length and time are inversely related to mass and charge.

Humpherys, D., “Measuring Planck’s constant with Compton scattering,” Applied Physics Research, 15 (1), 24–30 (2023).
https://doi.org/10.5539/apr.v15n1p24
→ This paper shows that universal constants consist of Planck units in their unit dimensions and that conserved pairs of Planck units are known with the same precision as the Planck constant and the Speed of Light. Implications and opportunities for the field of metrology are discussed.

Humpherys, D., “The implicit structure of Planck’s constant,” European Journal of Applied Physics, 4 (6), 22–25 (2022).
https://doi.org/10.24018/ejphysics.2022.4.6.227
→ This paper examines the dimensional structure of the Planck constant and its relationship to the Planck units. It explains the implication of these relationships on our understanding of energy quantization.