Currently the speed of light in a vacuum is just a hair under 300,000 kilometers per second (more precisely 299,792,458 kps).
Because the speed of light (known as “c” to mathematicians and physicists) does not exactly match 300,000 kilometers per second, it makes calculations for physicists and mathematicians unnecessarily tedious.
The speed of light is a law of nature that we cannot adjust. By contrast there is no law of nature that defines either the meter or the second. Both are human ideas that comprise a human set ratio – which we have adjusted in the recent past.
There is no reason one of the two cannot be adjusted by such a trivial amount so that the speed of light in a vacuum is exactly 300,000 kilometers per second. Many mathematicians already approximate it to 300k-kps anyway.
It would merely require shortening the definition of a meter, or lengthening the second — by a minuscule 0.0007 percent.
The General Conference on Weights and Measures is the International body which determines Standard Units of measure. They change units of measure when they can be made more useful or more helpful.
If you agree, why not let the General Conference on Weights and Measures know. You can get them a note at (webmaster at bipm (dot) org).
