• Question: how is the speed of light measured?

    Asked by terimater to Aime, Akshat, Diana, Gemma, Judith on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Judith McCann

      Judith McCann answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I’m not a physicist so I’m not like an expert on speed of light, but i think it was measured by astromony-The orbit of moons around other planets was found to be shorter when the earth goes towards them, and longer as we move away… so if the earth is nearer the light reflected by the moons takes less time to reach us!

      This meant that for the first time people realised that the light first had to travel to us, rather than you seeing the light where it is.

      Hopefully one of the other scientists can put it more clearly… i do know that speed of light is 300million metres/second (ish) 😀

    • Photo: Akshat Rathi

      Akshat Rathi answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I happened to watch a BBC science show called ‘Bang Goes the Theory’ where they repeated the first experiment on how to measure the speed of light. You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHXhgrQUDnI 🙂

      It is quite simple to do it but to get accurate answers you will need much better equipment.

    • Photo: Gemma Sharp

      Gemma Sharp answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Well, you could do it as Judith explains using the planets and whatnot and you’d probably get an accurate measurement… or you could do it with a chocolate bar and a microwave too! Alright, this probably isn’t going to be that accurate, but there is more chocolate involved, and that’s rarely a bad thing.

      This website explains how: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Measure-the-Speed-of-Light-Using-Chocola/ but it’s also explained in a book I have called How to Fossilise Your Hamster.

      I wouldn’t recommend doing it without your parents’ permission considering it might make a bit of a mess of the microwave :/

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