Sunday, October 18, 2015

physical constants - Why is the speed of light exactly 299,792.458 m/s and not faster or slower?



Why is the speed of light 299,792,458 metres per second, and not faster or slower.


Why not 500 trillion kilometers per second or 120 miles per hour?


This has been 'bothering' me for a while. Googling it usually found answers about why isn't 'c' infinite et cetera, and the answers were usually saying (from my interpretation) that if c were infinite, then matter couldn't exist.



I recently found this reference, but despite its blatantly obvious attempt to explain to laymen, I still don't understand why c is (roughly) 300 million meters per second.


A 'dummy's' guide to my understanding why 'c' is the number/speed that it is, would be greatly appreciated by me and all others who will read your answer in the future.




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