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How was the speed of light determined and who found it,
when? How close was the estimate of 186,000 mps to
the 'actual' speed of light?
Asked by: Chuck Baker

Answer
Although Galileo was the first person of record to try to determine the speed
of light, he was not successful. His experiments took place over terrestrial
distances and the timing methods available to him were far to crude to make
a successful determination given such distances and the very great speed of
light.

It was the Danish astronomer, Olaus Roemer, who, in 1676, first successfully
measured the speed of light. His method was based on observations of the
eclipses of the moons of Jupiter (by Jupiter).

Roemer noted that the observed time interval between successive eclipses
of a given moon was about seven minutes greater when the observations
were carried out when the earth in its orbit was moving away from Jupiter
than when it was moving toward Jupiter. He reasoned that, when the earth
was moving away from Jupiter, the observed time between eclipses was
increased above the true value (by about 3.5 minutes) due to the extra
distance that the light from each successive eclipse had to travel to reach the
earth. Conversely, when the earth was moving toward Jupiter, the observed
interval between eclipses was decreased (by about 3.5 minutes) because of
the decreased distance that the light had to travel on each successive
eclipse.

Had the earth not been moving, the light from successive eclipses would
have to travel the same distance to the earth, so that the true interval
between eclipses would be observed. However, when the earth was moving
away from Jupiter, the light had to travel a greater distance to reach the
earth from each successive eclipse, and conversely a smaller distance when
the earth was moving toward Jupiter. Since the speed of the earth in its orbit
was known, the distance that the earth had moved between eclipses could

be calculated. The speed of light was then estimated to account for the
seven minute overall variation of the observed interval between successive
eclipses.

Roemer's estimate for the speed of light was 140,000 miles/second, which is
remarkably good considering the method employed.

For a further discussion of the ways in which the speed of light has been
measured, see:

'Asimov's Guide to Science,' Isaac Asimov, Basic Books, Inc., (1972), pp. 342-
347.

For an abstract of Roemer's proposed method, see:

'A Source Book in Physics,' W. F. Magie, Ed., Harvard Univ. Press, (1963), pp.
335-337.
Answered by: Warren Davis, Ph.D., President, Davis Associates, Inc., Newton,
MA USA

Ever since Roemer, there have been many di erent attempts by di erent
scientists to more accurately measure the speed of light. Here is the brief
summary of their names and the values they obtained:

Date Investigator Method Result (km/s) (Error)

1849Fizeau Rotating toothed wheel 313,000 (5000)
1850Foucault Rotating mirror 298,000 (2000)
1875Cornu Rotating mirror 299,990 (200)
1880Michelson Rotating mirror 2990,910 (159)
1883Newcomb Rotating mirror 299,860 (30)
1928Mittelstaedt Kerr cell shutter 299,778 (10)
1932Pease and Pearson Rotating mirror 299,774 (2)
1940Huttel Kerr cell shutter 299,768 (10)
1951Bergstrand Kerr cell shutter 299,793.1 (0.3)

Reference: 'Introduction to Modern Optics, by Grant R. Fowles, Dover

Publications, NYC, 1989, p6
Answered by: I would like to add that the speed of light has finally been
defined to be 299 792 458 m/s, exactly. This is done since we believe c to be

 a true constant of nature. So, now, the definition of the meter is directly
dependent on the definition

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