🚀 go-pugleaf

sichase@csa2.lbl.gov (SCOTT I CHASE) writes:

>In article <1992Nov3.122750.1@stsci.edu>, zellner@stsci.edu writes...

>> >  Why is the constant value of speed of light what it is?
>> >  Why not ten times the current value? ie 3*10^9 m/s
>> 
>>A meaningless question.  It's like saying "Why don't you make your meter sticks
>>only a tenth as long?"

>Not true.  It's a very good question, the answer to which is "We haven't the
>slightest idea - yet."  Whether a question seems vacuous often depends on 
>the theoretical framework in which you ask the question.

Or the system of units.  Particle people would rephrase the question
"Why are the coupling constants and masses what they are?"  because they
like to define the speed of light to be 1 and put all the free parameters
into coupling constants and masses.  Now that the speed of light is
defined to be constant, if a "change in the speed of light" were
detected it wouldn't be called a change in the speed of light-- more
likely it would be called a change in the size of all objects in the
universe, or in the speed of clocks, due to a change in coupling 
constants!  At least that's what particle physicists would say. 
-- 
Matt McIrvin