[mbyron]

Don't get too excited about the gap between the speed of light in the atmosphere and the speed of light in vacuum (which has 3 syllables, BTW). The former is 99.97% of the latter, which is certainly close enough for government work.

The speed of an electronic signal through wire is also at least 96% of c, which again is close enough, where c is about 671 million mph.

The slowest signal in the PTS system is the transmission of sound from the whistle to the microphone, which moves at a measley 760 mph (though the speed of sound varies somewhat depending on altitude, barimetric pressure, etc.).

For comparison, the speed of nerve impulses in a human timekeeper is no more than 100-200 mph, or about 3 million times slower than c.