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the metre is defined as the distance travelled by light in 1/299,792,458 second. Why did not people choose some easier number such as 1/300000,000 second and why not 1 second,(a qtn. from hc verma)please answer

the metre is defined  as the distance travelled by light in 1/299,792,458 second. Why did not people choose some easier number such as 1/300000,000 second and why not 1 second,(a qtn. from hc verma)please answer

Grade:11

5 Answers

Umakant biswal
5349 Points
7 years ago
@ law rence 
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.
Speed of light is exactly 299,792,458 metres per second i.e distance travel by light in 1 sec.. 
So to defined 1 meter v consider distance travel by light in 1/299792458 sec and if v consider 1/300000000 sec thn we will get approximately 1 meter...
and to define 1 meter we cannot consider distance travel by light in 1 sec because that distance will be 299,792,458 metres 
HOPE IT WILL HELP[ YOU OUT 
ALL THE BEST ..
 
Paras Verma
45 Points
7 years ago
1/300,000,000 is a very nice approximation of 1/299,729,458 but afterall they are not same though the diffrence is not much bust on large scales you may encounter some problems such as 100 light years will be significantly greater if we take speed of light 300,000,000m/s instead of 299,729,458m/s.But casually,some people (like me)
for the sake of ease in calculation still uses 300,000,000m/s.(this is completely my opinion , actual answer may differ by miles)
Tanishq
21 Points
5 years ago
Quora provides a better answer Do check it there.
A brief: because metre was not originally defined as this. IT WAS DEFINED AS THE DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO SCRATCHES in some iridium platinum plate. In 1983 to provide better accuracy(length of plate changed with temperature) it was defined by the help of speed of light and so to make the two distances equal 1 second was divided..and coincidently the no came very close to 30000000 but not exactly. YOU SEE IT WAS NOT METRE WHICH WAS DEFINED FROM THE SPEED OF LIGHT..IT WAS OTHER WAY ROUND   
RISHIKA
550 Points
3 years ago

he metre is defined using the speed of light because it is a thing which we know precisely to be 299,792,458 m/s. So 1 m comes out to be the distance travelled by light in 1/299,792,458 seconds.

If we take the speed of light to be 300,000,000 m/s, and use it to define a metre, we would get a close approximation but not the actual meter known to us today

Rana
15 Points
3 years ago
The metre is defined as the distance travelled by light in 1/299,792,458 of a second. IT IS A ACCURATE MEASUREMENT WHICH IS KNOWN TO US TODAY.If we take some easier numbers or do some approximation as mentioned in question then it will leave some error in
the measurement of a meter WHICH WILL AGAIN RESULT IN ERROR VALUES WHICH WE WILL BE CLCLATION USING THIS FUNDAMENTAL QUANTITY.
Hope this will help Pls rate me!!

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