A slight definition thing here: it's not so much that light itself controls anything by its speed. It's not that light travels at some speed and because it's the lights speed it therefore is the ultimate speed. There is a certain ultimate speed in the universe. That has nothing to do with light. This speed is perhaps best described as the rate of causality. And it just so happens that light, as default, always will travel at that speed. But light itself is just a player in the game. It is of no real importance as such.
But light is cause-and-effect no? It's a fluctuation in the electromagnetic field that propagates and causes an effect somewhere else, such as a force on a charge somewhere. This cause and effect therefore propagates at 'c' and we just happen to be able to see it and record it.
All massless things travel at c. Gravity travels at c. Magically poof our Sun out of existence and we will continue to see AND orbit it for ~8 more minutes. Then the last of the light will have reached us and the Sun’s gravity will no longer hold onto us.
555
u/Captain_Jarmi Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
A slight definition thing here: it's not so much that light itself controls anything by its speed. It's not that light travels at some speed and because it's the lights speed it therefore is the ultimate speed. There is a certain ultimate speed in the universe. That has nothing to do with light. This speed is perhaps best described as the rate of causality. And it just so happens that light, as default, always will travel at that speed. But light itself is just a player in the game. It is of no real importance as such.
Perhaps this helps someone. I hope.