In 1676, the Danish astronomer Ole Roemer (1644–1710) became the first person to

measure the speed of light.

 Ole Römer is famous for demonstrating the finite velocity of light. He produced
various scientific instruments including an improved micrometer, planetaria, the
first transit circle, and an alcohol thermometer.


Around 1676, Danish astronomer Ole Roemer became the first person
to prove that light travels at a finite speed. He studied Jupiter’s moons
and noted that their eclipses took place sooner than predicted when
Earth was nearer to Jupiter and happened later when Earth was farther
away from Jupiter. Roemer reasoned this was the result of light moving
at a finite speed; it took longer to make it to Earth when Jupiter was a
greater distance away.

He estimated speed of light by observing times of eclipses of the moons of

Jupiter which seemed to depend on relative positions of the earth and
Jupiter (A.A Michelson, 1995). Rømer noticed that there was a delay in the
appearance of moons of Jupiter when the distance between earth and
Jupiter was far. He correctly guessed that this delay was due to the extra
time required for light to travel when earth was at a greater distance from
Jupiter. Since this method involved the diameter of the earth’s orbit which
was not known accurately during that time, Rømer estimated the speed of
light as214000 kms-1.
James Bradley, an English Physicist determined speed of light by using stellar
aberration. He measured the apparent shift in the position of a fixed star due to rotation
of earth. Stellar aberration angle is related to the ratio of orbital speed of earth around
sun and speed of light. Bradley was able to measure the small stellar aberration angle.
Hence he was able to estimate speed of light by knowing orbital speed of earth. He
concluded that the speed of light was around 301000 kms-1 . But even this method
involved the value of the diameter of the earth’s orbit which was not known accurately
during that time.

James Bradley was an English astronomer most famous for his discovery of the aberration
of starlight. The finding was an important piece of evidence supporting Copernicus's theory
that the Earth moved around the sun, and also provided an alternative way to estimate the
velocity of light.

The first efficacious experiment for the measurement of speed of light was carried out
by Arnold Fizeau, a French Physicist in 1849. His method involved shining of light
from a source which was kept at a distance of about 7 km on a rotating wheel consisting
of 720 teeth and rotating at about 12.6 rotations per second. He calculated the speed of
light on the basis of appearance and disappearance of image with respect to the speed
of wheel. He estimated the speed of light in free space as 313000 kms-1 .

Fizeau also studied another important phenomenon of light. He conducted

experiments that demonstrated that the velocity of light is a constant, regardless of the
motion of the medium it is passing through. It was previously established that light
traveled at different rates through different mediums. However, prior to Fizeau's
discovery, it was believed that if the medium was in motion, the velocity of the speed of
light would be increased. Fizeau conducted studies in which he measured the speed of
light through flowing liquids. He discovered, to his surprise, that the velocity of light did
not increase by the movement of the liquids. His observations were contradictory to
Newton's laws of classical mechanics and contributed to discoveries made concerning
the properties of light during the twentieth century.
In 1907, Rosa and Dorsey estimated speed of light as 2.99788×108 ms-1 by
determining the values of !! and ∈! . The vacuum permittivity was estimated by
measuring capacitance and dimensions of a capacitor, whereas the value of vacuum
permeability is fixed at exactly 4!×10!!!"!! using the definition of ampere.

 Rosa and Dorsey used the electric permittivity (ε) and magnetic permeability (µ)
constants to calculate the speed of light.

In 1926, Albert Michelson, an American Physicist measured the speed of light using
an octagonal rotating mirror. The experiment was carried out between two hill stations
namely Mt. Antonio and Mt. Wilson observatory. This experiment is regarded as one of
the most accurate methods to determine the speed of light. It also known as a ‘null
method’ since it does not involve any error due to measurement. Michelson estimated
the speed of light as 2.99797×108 ms-1 .

 He made use of a special eight-sided revolving mirror and obtained a value of

299,798 km/sec for the velocity of light. To refine matters further, he made use of
a long, evacuated tube through which a light beam was reflected back and forth
until it had traveled 16 km through a vacuum. 

In 1679, Christian Huygens proposed his wave theory of light in which he postulated
that, each point in a source of light sends out waves in all directions in a hypothetical
medium called ‘ether’. Ether was assumed to be continuous medium which pervades
entire universe. In order to explain the tremendous speed of light, ether was assumed to
be a medium with high elasticity and low density. This assumption was made since light
was thought to be moving in ether just like sound waves propagating in a medium and
hence light was expected to satisfy Newton’s laws. Although Huygens’ theory was able
to explain reflection, refraction, dispersion etc., it is based on the assumption that there
exists strange medium called ether pervading the universe. But the existence of ether
with contradictory properties was simply assumed and was not been established by
anyone.

Galileo Galilei was the first person to attempt to measure the speed of light, in

the early 1600s. Galileo and an assistant each stood on a different hilltop with a known
distance between them, the plan was for Galileo to open the shutter of a lamp and then
for his assistant to open the shutter of a lamp as soon as he saw the light from Galileo's.

Using the distance between the hilltops and his pulse as a timer, Galileo planned to
measure the speed of light. He and his assistant tried this with different distances
between them, but no matter how far apart they were, he could measure no difference
in the amount of time it took the light to travel.

Galileo concluded that the speed of light was too fast to be measured by this
method, and he was correct. We now know the speed of light very precisely, and if
Galileo and his assistant were on hilltops one mile apart, light would take 0.0000054
seconds to travel from one person to the other. It is understandable that Galileo was
unable to measure this with his pulse!

Albert Einstein in theory helped to explain that time and motion are relative to their
observation as long as the speed of light remains constant and natural laws are the
same throughout the universe.

Albert Einstein (14 March 1879-18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical
physicist. Albert Einstein contribution to science is of paramount importance. Albert
Einstein developed the idea of relativity as one of the two pillars of recent physics.
Einstein’s The world is known for its influences on the philosophy of science.

 It can be derived from Maxwell's equations that the speed at which
electromagnetic waves travel is: c=(ϵ0μ0)−1/2�=(�0�0)−1/2. Since light is an
electromagnetic wave, that means that the speed of light is equal to the speed of the
electromagnetic waves. ϵ0�0 and μ0�0 are properties of the vacuum and are
constants, so c� will also be a constant. Thus from Maxwell's theory of
electromagnetism alone we can already see that the speed of light in vacuum should be
constant.