The Speed of Light

A scientist’s demonstration..

“For small creatures such as we, the vastness of the universe is made bearable only through love” -Carl Sagan

Have been able to bear and contain the curiosity of this Universe through the passion filled small-sized snippets in LinkedIn.. The Nobel Prize, Fermat and other forums. The unending quest of the human spirit!

And in the domain of light.. While it enables each one of us to go about our lives.. A poet would see an image differently.. A scientist would be treading on a different path.. From Tagore, Einstein, to the Gita and the Upanishads.. the seers have been contemplating on the unknown.

Came across this post. The earliest modern demonstration of the speed of light in the year.

A room perhaps 8 km in length. Light travelled all the way and reflected back. On the return path, a spinning cog wheel with 720 cogs and teeth. Speed was bumped to 13 spins per second, and lo, reflected light was blocked. 16000 meters traversed by cog speed of 13*720*2 teeth per second, giving the famous 2.99 10^8

What a magnificent demonstration and reduction principles of the complex cosmic unknown. It hints a picture of heavenly bodies spending life cycles of rotation revolution while a streak of distant light travels and intersects the oblivious observer. And the 360 cogs of the wheel capturing the teeth of time..

The choice of 720 teeth in the wheel is interesting. The magical 360 degrees seems to be related to the mean of the Solar and Lunar year, and also the angular perception of human eye.

It intrigues how did the ancient civilizations conduct or visualize this paradigm.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7229063120227377152--4uV