Background: This FQXi challenge brings into focus the role of speed of light and its triangulation with Planck Time and Planck Length. Take the equation at its face value and assume that light manifests length and time. We assume it is derivative of three facets of pi, continuity, symmetry, and harmony. So, of course, there is more to come.

One second: 299,792± km or 299,792.458 meters. The consistent validation of the speed (c) throughout the charts has always been some comfort while working so far outside the mainstream. The first validation is of Max Planck’s two most basic calculations, Planck Length and Planck Time. When divided using Max Planck’s figures from 1899, it equals 299,792,437.9 m/s (less than .001% of the laboratory speed in a vacuum, 299,792,458 meters/second). The second validation is at the one second mark between Notation-143 and Notation-144 where the distance is 299,792 km/sec. The third is the simple calculation at each notation and that variable speed is still within .1% of the laboratory speed.

The history of the measurements of the speed of light provides perspective. In 1862 Léon Foucault had estimated it to be 298,000±500 km/s. In 1907 E.B. Rosa and N.E. Dorsey, using ratio of the electromagnetic to the electrostatic unit of electricity, calculated the rate to be 299,710±30 km/s. It wouldn’t be until 1972 that a rate better than the Planck ratio of 1899 would be computed. A group with the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder, Colorado (K. Evenson, J. Wells, F. Petersen, B. Danielson, Gordon Day, R. Barger, J. Hall) used laser interferometry to calculate 299,792.4562±0.0011.

On June 3, 2020 (4:53 PM), I wrote to Gordon Day to affirm their work and to see if those still among the living within their Gang of Seven were still communicating. Just for fun, I’ll try again!

Unfortunately, there is no indication that Planck ever made that calculation. He had the numbers. He had the formula, but… That calculation might have told Planck, Einstein, and all who followed, “Slow down. Think. What is this telling us?”