In the 1600s, Ole Roemer became one of the first scientists to make a measurement of the speed of light. Roemer observed the orbits of Jupiter’s nearest moon and recognized that its orbital period was observed to be approximately 22 minutes longer when measured from Earth when it was furthest from Jupiter compared to when it was closest to Jupiter. Roemer reasoned that the difference was due to the fact that it took longer for light from Jupiter to travel the extra distance when Earth’s position was on the opposite side of the Sun from Jupiter. The distance d2 is 2.98x1011 m greater than the distance d1. Determine Roemer’s estimate of the speed of light in the 1600s.
Definition Definition Rate at which light travels, measured in a vacuum. The speed of light is a universal physical constant used in many areas of physics, most commonly denoted by the letter c . The value of the speed of light c = 299,792,458 m/s, but for most of the calculations, the value of the speed of light is approximated as c = 3 x 10 8 m/s.
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