The metre is defined as distance travelled by light in nbsp-1-299-792-458 seconds- why didn-t people chose some easier number such as 1-300-000-000 seconds- why not 1 second -

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Standard IX

Physics

Fundamental and Derived Units

the metre is ...

Question

the metre is defined as distance travelled by light in 1/299,792,458 seconds. why didn't people chose some easier number such as 1/300,000,000 seconds? why not 1 second ?

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Solution

Dear Student,

Speed of light is in vacuum 299,792,458 m/s. Hence, metre is defined on the basis of this speed. Taking some standard easier number would have yielded a small error in the standard value of metre. One second is a big time interval when one wants to set a measure for some standard quantity to a very large accuracy. Hence, taking one second is not feasible either.

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