If you spend enough time on the Internet, you'll likely find a post telling you that the speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second, and that the latitude of the Great Pyramid of Giza is 29.9792458 degrees north, before inviting you to evaluate whether or not that's true. Coincidence or not.
But is this true, and if so, is it just a coincidence?
The answer to the first question is yes. Light travels at 299,792,458 meters per second in a vacuum, which is the absolute speed limit of the universe. The latitude of the Great Pyramid of Giza is actually 29.9792458 north, but so are a whole bunch of other places at the same latitude.
As for whether this was a mere coincidence or not, the answer is also yes.
First, the ancient Egyptians – even if they had discovered the speed of light centuries before the Danish astronomer measured it Ole Romer in 1676 AD For some reason he chose to keep quiet about it – he didn't work with meters, primarily because meters weren't even defined 1791 AD.
like Snopes He points out that the ancient Egyptians used arms, as the speed of light reached about 571,033,253 arms per second. If they had memes, theirs might have been about a random object in western Russia at latitude 57.1033253 under the title “Coincidence??!”
As impressive as it was, the ancient Egyptians did not measure the speed of light, nor did they navigate using global lines of longitude and latitude. If they did, there would likely be little more evidence than locating the Great Pyramid of Giza at a latitude that corresponds to latitude when expressed in a measurement system centuries removed from invention.
It's all a (somewhat interesting) coincidence.
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