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Article #474Re: Some physics questions
From: RING, DAVID WAYNE
Date: Wed, 04 Nov 1992 18:25
Date: Wed, 04 Nov 1992 18:25
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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 We measure spacelike intervals with metersticks, and timelike intervals with seconds. The constant c is a conversion factor between feet and seconds. We could choose to measure vertical distances in feet and horizontal distances in yards. Then rotations would involve a conversion constant c = 3ft/yd. One might ask why c was exactly 3ft/yd and not 5. But it boils down to the definitions of feet and yards. So a better question would be why is the speed of light exactly 1? I would say it is a consequence of the field equations, and thus comes from the masslessness of the photon. Dave Ring dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu
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Newsgroups: sci.physics Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!charon.amdahl.com!pacbell.com!decwrl!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!tamsun.tamu.edu!zeus.tamu.edu!dwr2560 From: dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu (RING, DAVID WAYNE) Subject: Re: Some physics questions Message-ID: <4NOV199212250062@zeus.tamu.edu> News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41 Sender: news@tamsun.tamu.edu (Read News) Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services References: <1992Nov3.122750.1@stsci.edu> <3NOV199212323281@csa2.lbl.gov> Distribution: na Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1992 18:25:00 GMT Lines: 18