19.2

Speed of Light

Chapter 19
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In 1849, Hippolyte Fizeau set up a brilliant experiment: he aimed a beam of light through the gaps of a rapidly spinning toothed wheel, toward a mirror 8.6 km away. The light passed through a gap, traveled to the mirror and back (17.2 km total), and returned to the wheel.

How did Fizeau actually measure the speed of light with this setup?