Shadows over the speed of light

TL;DR

This paper explores the implications of defining the meter based on the speed of light, questioning fundamental principles of relativity and proposing experimental and theoretical adjustments to address logical gaps.

Contribution

It proposes weakening the second postulate of special relativity and suggests new measurements of Maxwell's constant to align with the fixed speed of light.

Findings

Reveals logical gaps in current definitions of the meter and speed of light.

Proposes a weakened form of the second postulate of STR.

Suggests new measurements of Maxwell's constant.

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss some of the consequences of the CGPM (1983) definition of meter and, in particular, we discuss giving the speed of light an exact value. It is shown that this act touches the fundamental paradigms, such as the second postulate of the special theory of relativity (STR), the c-equivalence principle and the method of time synchronization. In order to fill the arising logical gaps, we suggest, among others, to weaken the second postulate of STR to a form directly confirmed by experiments and make new measurements of Maxwell's constant with accuracy comparable with that of the speed of light.