In Physics, What Makes Light So Special?

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I know what the speed of light is basically the speed limit of everything in the universe, and no information can travel faster than light itself. Light also exhibits many interesting properties and also serves as a constant for many formulae and equations in physics. The space-time continuum changes depending on what fraction of the speed of light at which you are travelling.

However, why light? Why is light and only light the one “phenomenon” that dictates most of physics? What makes light so special? My apologies if the question is phrased kind of strange.

In: Physics

9 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Light is easy to access and incredibly powerful measuring tool when used right. As others said, light itself is not that special (I’d say it is regardless, but for different reasons), the constant c denotes the speed at which causality travels. It’s like a lag between cause and effect, where c says “when you’d observe the effects if cause is a certain distance away” (astronomical distances; not on Earth).

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