History
| 1675 | Rømer and Huygens, moons of Jupiter | 220,000 |
| 1729 | James Bradley, aberration of light | 301,000 |
| 1849 | Hippolyte Fizeau, toothed wheel | 315,000 |
| 1862 | Léon Foucault, rotating mirror | 298,000±500 |
| 1907 | Rosa and Dorsey, EM constants | 299,710±30 |
| 1926 | Albert Michelson, rotating mirror | 299,796±4 |
| 1950 | Essen and Gordon-Smith, cavity resonator | 299,792.5±3.0 |
| 1958 | K.D. Froome, radio interferometry | 299,792.50±0.10 |
| 1972 | Evenson et al., laser interferometry | 299,792.4562±0.0011 |
| 1983 | 17th CGPM, definition of the metre | 299,792.458 (exact) |
Until the early modern period, it was not known whether light travelled instantaneously or at a very fast finite speed. The first extant recorded examination of this subject was in ancient Greece. The ancient Greeks, Muslim scholars and classical European scientists long debated this until Rømer provided the first calculation of the speed of light. Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity concluded that the speed of light is constant regardless of one's frame of reference. Since then, scientists have provided increasingly accurate measurements.
Read more about this topic: Speed Of Light
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“... in America ... children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“In every election in American history both parties have their clichés. The party that has the clichés that ring true wins.”
—Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)
“Certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment’s comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)