>>12034433undergrad physics is just like any other intro field. you need to know equations to solve anything but often times knowing the derivations for the equations is beyond the scope of their usage.
deriving EM equations from Maxwell's equations requires multivariable calc, and I think Green's functions? I'm not sure it's been a while. For most physics students they don't have the capacity to derive these on their own in an intro course.
>>12034485>the value of c is arbitraryyes, because the value of the meter is also arbitrary. if a meter was 100x longer than it is now, the value of c would change.
however since c is a velocity, it does depend on the definition of a second. the second is not defined in the way you said, but rather in terms of atomic transitions, which are extraordinarily precise.
all of this results because at some point in the past, humans said "okay this is a meter and this is a second," and those became the standards for length and time. they could've been wildly different if we had decided to just go with something else. now we just have more precise definitions.
