Why would Tom think the discovery of Quantum physics in the 1920's led to an increase between
1920 & 1940.......how does an extra 20m/s increase in this period facilitate quantum physics experiments?
And if that was the reason why did C decrease again in the 1960's..........did we just not need that extra 20m/s
One cannot observe an increase in the 1920-1930's &
then a decrease some 20-30 years later and then speculate it may have something to do with humans advancing
Tom talks about possible
reasons for a change
as would be explainable in his model.
He also elaborates on why and how it is explainable that c
might go up or down slightly.
(about 15 minutes into the interview).
What you are possibly missing here is:
A slightly faster and then a slightly slower c
does not imply that the resolution first was increased 1920 and then decreased again 1940
(or at about that time - it is just hearsay for me and I'll just keep with those dates).
It could just as well mean that the resolution was increased twice, first in 1920 and then again in 1940.c
is just a ratio.
It can be thought of as the ratio, the quotient of delta x / delta t (delta x over delta t).
Both values cannot be changed by arbitrary values
- to increase delta x, for instance, which can be thought of as the "spatial" resolution of the simulation,
this increase needs to be done in all 3 dimensions.
Think maybe of a cube of a certain size made of smaller cubes.
It can be constructed out of 10x10x10 small cubes (1000 all in all)
or it can be constructed out of 12x12x12 yet smaller cubes (1728 all in all)
or it can be constructed out of 17x17x17 yet smaller cubes (4913 all in all)
- to increase the spatial resolution of the whole cube.
Now delta t (go from one little cube to the next) needs to be adjusted in order for the quotient (which is c
) to stay about the same.
This can't be done exactly (to keep the value of c
exactly the same) but only by whole units the computer can handle.
So: everytime the spatial resolution is changed for instance, the ratio might change slightly up or down because the resolution in time needs to be adjusted, too.
A change of c
is indicative of a change in the model but it is - on the face of it - not clear whether the resolution was increased or decreased.
In this frame of thought I'd suppose the resolution was increased twice.