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
Light isn’t special, at least not in the way you’re asking it to be.
The speed of light is, in fact, the speed of *causality.* It’s the speed that *any* massless particle, or field wave, will travel. Gravitational waves also propagate at *c* (in other words, if the sun suddenly disappeared, Earth would continue orbiting it for eight minutes). If something is one light-year away, there is absolutely nothing you can do that will have any effect on it in less than one year.
We call it “the speed of light” because light was the first thing we realized was going that speed.
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