May 19, 2025
Science

We hear it all the time, but we don’t know who suggested it: who was the first to measure the speed of light and why?

  • July 12, 2024
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speed of lightplays a crucial role in understanding physical phenomena and fundamental laws. The fact that this velocity is so constant and how it affects space and time,

We hear it all the time, but we don’t know who suggested it: who was the first to measure the speed of light and why?

speed of lightplays a crucial role in understanding physical phenomena and fundamental laws. The fact that this velocity is so constant and how it affects space and time, unlike other velocities, continues to attract the attention of scientists and enthusiasts.

Come this time too Who first discovered the speed of light? Let us explain.

Galileo Galilei, whom we all know from physics books, was actually one of the first people to try to measure the speed of light.

speed of light

In the 17th century two people, at a known distance, He conducted an experiment where they stood with closed flashlights in their hands. When one turned on his flashlight, the other turned on his flashlight as soon as he saw the light. Although Galileo tried to record the time between two lighthouses, he did not succeed.

This remained an attempt. But we still emphasize that he is one of the owners of this idea. Agreed Who was able to make this experiment happen?

The Danish astronomer Ole Christensen Romer.

Ole Romer

Romer became the first scientist to successfully conduct studies to measure the speed of light. Himself, By studying eclipses of Jupiter’s largest moon Io He noted changes in eclipse times depending on the Earth’s position relative to Jupiter.

As the Earth gets closer to Jupiter, the eclipse intervals become shorter; as it gets farther away, it becomes longer. Romer, this situation attributed to the terminal velocity of light. He noted that as the distance between Earth and Jupiter increases, light has to travel a longer distance.

Later, after this discovery, scientists continued their work to accurately measure the speed of light.

in 1849 Hippolyte Fizeaubecame the first person to measure the speed of light using a rotating gear and an external mirror. Then in the 1920s came the work of Albert Michelson for more accurate measurements of the speed of light.

Michelson, an eight-sided rotating Optical experiments with mirror arrangement This has contributed to a more accurate calculation of the speed of light.

In 1983, an international commission He determined the speed of light to be 299,792,458 meters per second, which is the accepted value today. This value is considered to be the speed at which light from the depths of space reaches us and plays a crucial role in determining the physical boundaries of the universe.

Sources: AMNH, ADS

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