Finding the Speed of Light: The 1676 Discovery That Dazzled the World
Finding the Speed of Light: The 1676 Discovery That Dazzled the World
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Publisher's Hardcover ©2019--
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Tilbury House
Annotation: Describes how Danish astronomer Ole Romer measured the speed of light using a crude telescope and a mechanical timepiece.
Genre: [Physics]
 
Reviews: 2
Catalog Number: #193448
Format: Publisher's Hardcover
Common Core/STEAM: STEAM STEAM
Publisher: Tilbury House
Copyright Date: 2019
Edition Date: 2019 Release Date: 03/12/19
Illustrator: Evans, Rebecca,
Pages: 1 volume (unpaged)
ISBN: 0-88448-545-5
ISBN 13: 978-0-88448-545-2
Dewey: 535
LCCN: 2018960099
Dimensions: 24 x 29 cm.
Language: English
Reviews:
Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

How the observation of a small anomaly in a distant moon's orbit led to a discovery of, literally, astronomical significance.Weston spins thin historical records into an account of the career of 17th-century Danish astronomer Ole Romer from schoolboy days through nights spent watching the skies through a self-built telescope at the court of Louis XIV to final years as a renowned scientist (and police chief). Noticing that Jupiter's moon Io seemed to speed up and slow down on a regular schedule as it passed behind its planet, Romer not only concluded that light did not propagate instantaneously (a radical notion then), but, using the relatively crude clocks and other instruments of the time, came up with a wrong but close estimate of its speed. Along with retracing Romer's line of reasoning, the author explains how other researchers of the time and later roughed out the distances between major members of the solar system and refined those measurements over time, then closes with nods to Einstein, astronomical distances, and light's truly mind-bending pace. Evans tucks diagrams and mathematical calculations as well as banter and fanciful details into her lighthearted cartoon illustrations, wedging single and sequential panels of Romer and others at work into views of starscapes and planetary surfaces. Human figures in the art are white and predominantly male.A significant, unjustly obscure highlight from modern science's early days. (timeline) (Informational picture book. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

How the observation of a small anomaly in a distant moon's orbit led to a discovery of, literally, astronomical significance.Weston spins thin historical records into an account of the career of 17th-century Danish astronomer Ole Romer from schoolboy days through nights spent watching the skies through a self-built telescope at the court of Louis XIV to final years as a renowned scientist (and police chief). Noticing that Jupiter's moon Io seemed to speed up and slow down on a regular schedule as it passed behind its planet, Romer not only concluded that light did not propagate instantaneously (a radical notion then), but, using the relatively crude clocks and other instruments of the time, came up with a wrong but close estimate of its speed. Along with retracing Romer's line of reasoning, the author explains how other researchers of the time and later roughed out the distances between major members of the solar system and refined those measurements over time, then closes with nods to Einstein, astronomical distances, and light's truly mind-bending pace. Evans tucks diagrams and mathematical calculations as well as banter and fanciful details into her lighthearted cartoon illustrations, wedging single and sequential panels of Romer and others at work into views of starscapes and planetary surfaces. Human figures in the art are white and predominantly male.A significant, unjustly obscure highlight from modern science's early days. (timeline) (Informational picture book. 8-12)

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Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)
Word Count: 3,312
Reading Level: 5.1
Interest Level: K-3
Accelerated Reader: reading level: 5.1 / points: 1.0 / quiz: 504184 / grade: Middle Grades
Reading Counts!: reading level:5.6 / points:3.0 / quiz:Q77227
Lexile: 860L
Guided Reading Level: U
Fountas & Pinnell: U

More than two centuries before Einstein, using a crude telescope and a mechanical timepiece, Danish astronomer Ole Romer measured the speed of light with astounding accuracy. How was he able to do this when most scientists didn't even believe that light traveled? Like many paradigm-shattering discoveries, Romer's was accidental. Night after night he was timing the disappearance and reappearance of Jupiter's moon Io behind the huge, distant planet. Eventually he realized that the discrepancies in his measurements could have only one explanation: Light had a speed, and it took longer to reach Earth when Earth was farther from Jupiter. All he needed then to calculate light's speed was some fancy geometry.


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