2006-09-24 04:24:11 · 5 answers · asked by atreyu5797 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Michelson the first to calculate the speed of light with any precision. He did the experiments in 1879 on the campus of the US Naval Academy, which now has Michelson Hall for its science building.
There were earlier experiments by astronomers, who came very close to the actual speed of light in a vacuum. Check this out:
"In 1676 Roemer, while studying the satellites of Jupiter for an unrelated matter, was the first to find an indication that the speed of light was actually finite. As astonishingly great as that speed turned out to be (about 300,000 km/s), the real surprise came 2 centuries later.
By 1879, Michelson had determined the speed of light to an accuracy of +/- 50 km/s and for the first time the error was smaller than the back and forth speed of the Earth around the Sun (2x30 km/s), the next fastest accessible speed. " [See source.]
2006-09-24 04:43:08 · answer #1 · answered by oldprof 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it can be deducted from Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism, which he established back in 1864.
Maxwell himself did the calculation and found 310'740 km/s, i.e. a bit too fast, but correctly recognised that this was so close to the speed of light (which had been reasonably well measured from the early 1700s), that light had to be an electro-magnetic radiation.
2006-09-27 10:35:03 · answer #2 · answered by AntoineBachmann 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The first reasonably accurate measurement of the speed of light was by Hippolyte Fizeau in 1849.
Before him Christiaan Huygens got close, but he was still quite a way out. Galileo was way out.
2006-09-24 04:33:03 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
nicolas copernicos and he used jupiter to measure he lived in the same period with galellio who tryed to measure it using candles but light was too fast
2006-09-24 08:36:43 · answer #4 · answered by koki83 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Galileo
He use a telescopy and a friend
2006-09-24 04:31:17 · answer #5 · answered by Juan D 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋