u/Disastrous_Stuff_240

Something that has always upset me is that the speed of light is exactly 299,792,458 meters per second, because physicists redefined the meter to be based on the speed of light. This number is SO close to 3\*10\^8 that in most physics problems you can just use that number for c and have your answer be really close.

I did the goddamn math. If we’d just redefined the meter to be 1/300000000 the speed of light, that meter would be equal to be about 99.93 cm compared to the meter we use now. That’s almost no difference. If you’re going to redefine the goddamn meter anyway then why pick 299 million and some? Would it really make that much difference if the meters we used were 0.07 cm shorter? would anyone even notice? Physics is stupid 😖