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In 1834, Charles Wheatstone developed a method of using a rapidly rotating mirror to study transient phenomena, and applied this method to measure the velocity of electricity in a wire and the duration of an electric spark. [1] He communicated to François Arago the idea that his method could be adapted to a study of the speed of light.
Fizeau used a special interferometer arrangement to measure the effect of movement of a medium upon the speed of light. According to the theories prevailing at the time, light traveling through a moving medium would be dragged along by the medium, so that the measured speed of the light would be a simple sum of its speed through the medium plus ...
Physics theories of the 19th century assumed that just as surface water waves must have a supporting substance, i.e., a "medium", to move across (in this case water), and audible sound requires a medium to transmit its wave motions (such as air or water), so light must also require a medium, the "luminiferous aether", to transmit its wave ...
If a concave parabolic obstacle is used, a plane wave pulse will converge on a point after reflection. This point is the focal point of the mirror. Circular waves can be produced by dropping a single drop of water into the ripple tank. If this is done at the focal point of the "mirror" plane waves will be reflected back.
Propagation of a wave packet demonstrating a phase velocity greater than the group velocity. This shows a wave with the group velocity and phase velocity going in different directions. The group velocity is positive, while the phase velocity is negative. [1] The phase velocity of a wave is the rate at which the wave propagates in any medium.
At the behest of the Paris Observatory under Urbain Le Verrier, Marie Alfred Cornu repeated Fizeau's 1848 toothed wheel measurement in a series of experiments from 1872 to 1876. The goal was to obtain a value for the speed of light accurate to one part in a thousand.
Phase velocity, the velocity at which a wave phase propagates; Pulse wave velocity, the velocity at which a pulse travels through a medium, usually applied to arteries as a measure of arterial stiffness; Group velocity, the propagation velocity for the envelope of wave groups and often of wave energy, different from the phase velocity for ...
A method of measuring the speed of light is to measure the time needed for light to travel to a mirror at a known distance and back. This is the working principle behind experiments by Hippolyte Fizeau and Léon Foucault. The setup as used by Fizeau consists of a beam of light directed at a mirror 8 kilometres (5 mi) away. On the way from the ...