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| View Original: | Foucault's determination of relative speed of light air vs water.png (1052x702) | |||
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| Keywords: Foucault's determination of relative speed of light air vs water.png en Foucault's determination of the relative speed of light in air vs water Light from a passing through a slit not shown is reflected by mirror m rotating clockwise around c towards the concave spherical mirrors M and M' Lens L forms images of the slit on the surfaces of the two concave mirrors The light path from m to M is entirely through air while the light path from m to M' is mostly through a water-filled tube T Lens L' compensates for the effects of the water on the focus The light reflected back from mirrors M and M' is diverted by a beam splitter towards an eyepiece O If mirror m is stationary both images of the slit reflected by M and M' reform at position α If mirror m is rapidly rotating light reflected from M forms an image of the slit at α' while light reflected from M' forms an image of the slit at α The experiment demonstrated that light travels more slowly through water than air Thus it disproved Newton's hypothesis that Snell's Law results from an increase in the speed of ballistic light particles as they crossed an air/water interface and gave what was considered to be definitive support of the wave theory of light 1853-04-25 This is Figure 3 from http //jubilotheque upmc fr/ead html id TH_000075_001 Sur les vitesses relatives de la lumière dans l'air et dans l'eau / par Léon Foucault 1853 I have retouched the figure to 1 isolate the figure from other figures on the same page 2 remove specks 3 strengthen broken lines 4 clarify smudged lettering Léon Foucault 18 September 1819 “ 11 February 1868 other versions PD-old-70-1923 Physics Optics Speed of light French scientists History of science | ||||
