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Speed of Light, Part 2 by Dave Horlick  Tue, 23 May 2006 02:27:16 GMT

Measuring the speed of light… | It's a summer night at the baseball field. | Meg: Bridget, we can't possibly take a stopwatch to Jupiter, what with gas prices where they are.Bridget: We don't need to… Jupiter has its own stopwatch! | Zeke: I'm not following you.Bridget: See that bright speck thru the binoculars? | Zeke: Ooo! And four, smaller specks!Bridget: Those are moons revolving around Jupiter. We can use them as clock hands!Bridget: As Earth gets further from Jupiter, its light should take longer to reach us, and its clock should lose time.6 months later… | There is snow on the ground. Meg is perched atop a Dobsonian reflector telescope. | Meg: The clock hands are running 16 minutes slow.View pulls out to the solar system. Jupiter and Earth are pictured both at opposition, in May of 2006, and in conjunction, in November. | Meg: And now we're on the other side of the Sun.Bridget: So light can travel the distance between the Earth & the Sun in about 8 minutes.Bridget: And across the ball field about 8 million times in one second. | Zeke: Game called on account of snow!

Jupiter texture map: James Hastings-Trew


Principal Investigators | Groundhog Day … | Zeke's Bottom's Curious Property | A Watt Saved | Speed of Light, Part 2 | Speed of Light | Butterscotch Sky … | RSS Feed

 


Copyright 2006, Dave Horlick