Why is c the symbol for the speed of light? (1997)
1–10 of 47 posts
Re: Why is c the symbol for the speed of light? (1997)
#2And here I was thinking it stood for Causality. Good to know.
Re: Why is c the symbol for the speed of light? (1997)
#3First letter from the Latin for Speed.
Re: Why is c the symbol for the speed of light? (1997)
#4First letter from the Latin for Speed.
The article is a good read and adds some nuance to this answer.
Re: Why is c the symbol for the speed of light? (1997)
#5I did not know about that Latin term however I thought this came from the french since in the old time, many mathematicians and physicists used "celerite" instead of "vitesse" to talk about speed.
Re: Why is c the symbol for the speed of light? (1997)
#6And here I was thinking it stood for Causality. Good to know.
I always just assumed that it was Constant. I wonder what other inaccurate assumptions I have.
Re: Why is c the symbol for the speed of light? (1997)
#7> The same Latin root is found in more familiar words such as acceleration and even celebrity, a word used when fame comes quickly.
According to the OED, celebrity comes from the Latin “celebritās, [the] state of being busy or crowded, festival, games or other celebration characterized by crowded conditions, reputation, renown, fame, frequency or commonness.”
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/celebrity_n?tab=etymology#991...
Re: Why is c the symbol for the speed of light? (1997)
#8I always remember c as the constant speed of light [in a vacuum], but never pondered the actual origin beyond the perhaps rudimentary algebra “x, y, z are variables and a, b, c are constants”.
I don’t think I thought c came from “constant”, because that’s a very English-centric view of science, but the annoying thing about reading a smart article like this is that it’s impossible to explore the depths of how your mind worked before acquiring the knowledge!
Re: Why is c the symbol for the speed of light? (1997)
#9Something related which I've not been able to find the root of - in some older British mathematics textbooks, F=ma is written instead p=mf (and this is definitely p meaning force and f acceleration and not an equivalent formula in terms of impulse or similar). I would love to know why these letters were used.