Article View: sci.physics
Article #921Re: Speed of light symbol - "c"
From: SCOTT I CHASE
Date: Sat, 08 Aug 1992 18:39
Date: Sat, 08 Aug 1992 18:39
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In article <8AUG199205522317@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov>, pedlar@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov (Pedlar, Todd K.) writes... >I think there really isn't any special reason for the letter c, except that >it was at one time (and still is for the most part) to denote the speed >of any kind of wave by the letter c (usally subscripted, as in c-sub-s for >the speed of sound), so they just decided to let c stand for the speed of >light. Any one who went to prep school (I didn't) or read hundreds of books by Isaac Asimov (I did) knows that the Latin word for "speed" is "celeritas," hence the English word "celerity" and the symbol "c" for the speed of light. -Scott -------------------- Scott I. Chase "The question seems to be of such a character SICHASE@CSA2.LBL.GOV that if I should come to life after my death and some mathematician were to tell me that it had been definitely settled, I think I would immediately drop dead again." - Vandiver
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!wupost!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!ames!agate!dog.ee.lbl.gov!csa3.lbl.gov!sichase From: sichase@csa3.lbl.gov (SCOTT I CHASE) Newsgroups: sci.physics Subject: Re: Speed of light symbol - "c" Followup-To: sci.physics Date: 8 Aug 92 18:39:01 GMT Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA Lines: 19 Distribution: na Message-ID: <25329@dog.ee.lbl.gov> References: <uang-040892152722@chlorine.ops.lmsc.lockheed.com.> <8AUG199205522317@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov> Reply-To: sichase@csa3.lbl.gov NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.198 News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4