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LDAS Monthly Meeting – Measuring the speed of light, by Prof Alan Davies
25 October 2023 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
E=mc2, Einstein’s famous equation. To calculate the energy, we need to know c, the speed of light. Most early observers thought that light was transmitted instantaneously i.e. with infinite speed. Galileo was the first to attempt to measure the finite value. He was hopelessly wrong, but it started a story which we shall follow in this talk. We shall start with the first reasonably accurate measurement by Ole Rømer using astronomical observations and follow with Hippolyte Fizeau’s first terrestrial measurement. We then move on to twentieth century techniques. Finally, we shall see its importance in the new SI definition of the metre.
| Alan Davies is Professor Emeritus, Mathematics, at the University of Hertfordshire where his teaching and research has been in numerical applied mathematics. He has, for nearly thirty years, had a very close association with Royal Institution Mathematics Masterclass programmes in Hertfordshire, London and elsewhere. He presents a wide variety of topics to young people of all ages from primary through secondary into higher education and gives public lectures to general audiences on popular applications of mathematics and physics. He frequently sprinkles these masterclass presentations and public lectures with suitable demonstrations.
There will be a break after the talk and then an astronomy news update from Gordon Ewen.
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