National Maximum Speed Law for the 55 mph speed limit offered, "Speed limit 55. It's not just a good idea. It's the law.". Intelligentsia riffed that with a more absolute statement based on the speed of light: "186,000 miles per second. It's not just a good idea, it's the law." National Maximum Speed Law The National Maximum Speed Law (NMSL) in the United States was a provision of the Federal 1974 Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act that prohibited speed limits higher than . It was drafted in response to oil price spikes and supply disruptions during the 1973 oil crisis. While Federal officials hoped
Speed of light in the solar system, such as the radius of the Earth's orbit. Historically, such measurements could be made fairly accurately, compared to how accurately the length of the reference distance is known in Earth-based units. It is customary to express the results in astronomical units (AU) per day. Ole Christensen Rømer used an astronomical measurement to make the first quantitative estimate of the speed of light. When measured from Earth, the periods of moons orbiting a distant planet are shorter when the Earth is approaching the planet than when the Earth is receding from it. The distance travelled by light