Why 300,000km/s? Why not something else?

Question

Why is the speed of light that? Why not something else? What limits it, and why isn't it slower?

Is it entirely arbitrary? I can't imagine so.

Answer 1

It's arbitrary in that if it was 400,000km/s, you'd be asking why it was that instead. It's that speed because it has to be SOME speed. That's like asking why the winning lottery number was 19. Why was it 19? Why not some other number? What's so special about 19? Absolutely nothing, it has no significance. It just is.

Light isn't always that speed anyway. That's only the approximate, calculated speed of light IN A VACUUM. You know how light bends in water? That's the effect of light slowing down. The speed of light is dependent on the medium it's in. The laws of physics wouldn't change if it were anything different.

Answer 2

Really, science looks at the universe and tries to make sense of it.

We have observed that the speed of light in a vacuum is a certain speed, and we have seen, since Einstein, that this speed is a very special speed, that light will appear to be moving at that speed no matter how fast you are moving. But we do not have an explanation as to why the speed of light is what it is.

You are undoubtedly correct, that it is not arbitrary. But at this time we have no insight as to what it might be related to.