♥crazy and lazy♥ asked this question and never got an answer..So this is your big chance to answer their question quicker than I could look at you.
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Direct measurement. Time it from point A to point B which are a known distance apart, and divide distance by time.
Here's a listing of some of the measurements.
http://www.speed-light.info/measurement.…
Ole Roemer is credited with the first calculation in 1675. It was based on astronomical observations. The distance was the diameter of earth's orbit, and the time had to do with eclipses of Jupter's moons. I don't know the details, but he got the right order of magnitude. (200,000 km/sec. The actual number is 300,000 km/sec).
Michelson and Morley did the most famous measurement in 1887, using Michelson's incredibly precise interferometer for the time measurement. Here's a description of the experiment.
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/…
They were able to measure the speed down to a few meters per second.
Here's a listing of some of the measurements.
http://www.speed-light.info/measurement.…
Ole Roemer is credited with the first calculation in 1675. It was based on astronomical observations. The distance was the diameter of earth's orbit, and the time had to do with eclipses of Jupter's moons. I don't know the details, but he got the right order of magnitude. (200,000 km/sec. The actual number is 300,000 km/sec).
Michelson and Morley did the most famous measurement in 1887, using Michelson's incredibly precise interferometer for the time measurement. Here's a description of the experiment.
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/…
They were able to measure the speed down to a few meters per second.
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The speed of light was first measured by Danish astronomer Ole Rømer using eclipses of Jupiter's moons. Jupiter's moon system operates as a perfect clock, so exact that events appear to occur at slightly different times depending on how far away the Earth is from Jupiter. By measuring these discrepancies in 1676, Rømer was able to determine the speed of light.
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I heard that some old scientist first measured it by standing on one hill top while another scientist sat on a different hill top in the middle of the night so they had some kind of system worked out to communicate cause they didn't have cell phones or what ever but what they did was uncover lanterns and they were able to tell that the light lagged a little bit in other words it wasn't instantaneous. they knew the distance between hill tops and the estimated lag time and so they were able to do some rough calculations.
They probably had some synchronized clocks and the guy with the lantern knew to release the light beam at a predetermined time.
They probably had some synchronized clocks and the guy with the lantern knew to release the light beam at a predetermined time.
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Look up "speed of light" on wikipedia
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I guess they started small, like how fast it goes a yard or mile, then just multiplied it, or something.
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Lots of math and science.