Galileo GalileiThe speed of light measured by using lanterns In the 17th century, many scientists and physicists didn’t believe in the speed of light. They figured that light traveled any distance in no time. Galileo was the first person to come up with an experiment to prove that the existence of the speed of light was true. What he did was that he and his assistant stood on the hilltops one mile apart and both of them were holding a shuttered lantern. Galileo’s assistant role was to open his lantern shutter once Galileo flashed his own lantern. At that point, Galileo was planning to time how long it took before he saw the light from the other side of the hill. This experiment failed to measure the exact measurement of the time intervals. It was way to fast to be measured in Galileo’s way. When the two lanterns were uncovered, it failed to show the accurate timing of the speed. The only contribution Galileo found in this experiment was that light traveled at least 10 times faster than sound.  Back to homepage |
