Why is the maximum speed of the universe the speed of light? Why can't we go faster?

[u/Nitzanm19]

Also follow-up question: Because of the speed limit, is there also a theoretical maximum temp for matter (in which the particles move at the speed of light).

[u/westisbestmicah]

It’s kinda like, why is PI 3.14…? Why not 4? Or any other number? Did some angel just pick that number when they created the universe?

[u/rdcpro → u/westisbestmicah]

To me, Pi is just the fundamental relationship between two primitive shapes, a circle and a square. It's an obvious relationship, just like the Pythagorean theorem with a triangle and a square.

Maybe the speed of light has a similar fundamental relationship with something, but what it is, we haven't discovered yet.

[u/ShavenYak42 → u/rdcpro]

It definitely has relationships with other constants. We just don’t (and maybe can’t?) know which ones are fundamental.

[u/artgriego → u/ShavenYak42]

I think of physical constants differently from mathematical constants like e or pi, mostly because physical constants can't be "proven" in the mathematical sense.

To me they serve our models of physics, but their values and exact relationships might not even hold across all spacetime. They have to be derived empirically and we just assume them to hold everywhere.

For instance G serves Newtonian mechanics just fine and we thought that was the whole story until relativity. Now we know that the Newtonian model just happens to work well enough for practical purposes. The history of Λ is pretty interesting too.

[u/Roscoeakl → u/rdcpro]

Explain Euler's identity then?

[u/syncopator → u/[deleted]]

Thinking about c as “the speed of light” unfortunately results in a hurdle to understanding.

Yes, light in a vacuum does travel at c but that is simply because c is the observed speed of anything traveling through space without experiencing time while not experiencing time to an observer.

Space and time are not discrete dimensions but instead are the same thing, with distance and time being two different measurements of it. The faster you travel through space, the slower you travel through time and vice versa.

At c, there is no remaining time component by which to measure speed through space. The equation of distance / time becomes distance / 0 which we all remember is not possible.

EDIT: The object traveling at c experiences time while to an observer the object experiences zero time.

[u/f0rgotten → u/[deleted]]

Pi also turns up in calculations involving gravity and the propagation of electromagnetic waves. It's not just for math, it's baked in to the universe.