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
We call it the speed of light because we only later realised that the speed is much more fundemental.
Any massless particle will be traveling at the speed of light, and massive ones will always be slower. It is more appropriate to call it the cosmic speed limit or maximum possible speed. As often in science what stuff is called is affected by our history of discovery.
The second part is where light is special is in particle physics. There forces need particles to transmit them. Here the electromagnetic force just so happen to be transmitted by photons.
In general light just interact with alot of things, making it very important for exploring the world, whether you are going for a walk or determining the elemental composition of a distant galaxy.
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