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The speed of light has units. The fine structure constant is a dimensionless quantity, like pi.
by Ragib_Zaman 6y ago
The speed of light has units. The fine structure constant is a dimensionless quantity, like pi.
- Koshkin 6y agoIn special relativity and electrodynamics c is sometimes used as a dimensionless constant (equal to 1).
- Ragib_Zaman 6y agoIn those subjects they choose different units so that the speed of light is 1 of that unit, but it still has that unit associated to it. So it is not dimensionless.
- Koshkin 6y agoThe reason it is indeed left dimensionless is that in formulas it is impossible to keep track of the dimension of an implied factor that is equal to 1. In d = t, therefore, distance and time are actually measured in the same units (usually of time).