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Rømer and the Doppler Principle. The velocity of light. Erling Poulsen While Rømer lived
in Paris, he was timing the eclipse of Io, the innermost big
moon of Jupiter, by the shadow of the planet. For wave functions, which propagates
with a velocity c, we have the following equations : λ * ν=c and ν=1/T From these equations follows: λ =T*c The well known Doppler equation : R/c=Δ λ / λ Can be transformed
to : R/c=Δ T/T Here, R is the radial velocity
between the Earth and Jupiter, T is the period between
eclipses, and Δ T is the increase or decrease in T. Δ T = 15 sec. If we integrate T from one
conjunction between the Earth and Jupiter to the following
opposition, we get an accumulated Doppler shift in the period
of 16.7 minutes, near the value found by Rømer in 1676 (published
in Journal des Sçavans 1676)
COMPUTATION OF THE SPEED OF
LIGHT Rømer never did compute the speed of light,
maybe because he felt that the distance between the Earth and
the Sun was not known too well. However, there is a value in
"Adversaria" (his notebook, Royal library,
Copenhagen, fol. αb, he writes: 1091 earthdiameter per minute).
1676 nov. 9. The eclipse is delayed. 1676 nov. 21. He reads a paper for the Academie des Sciences about the confirmation of the theory. 1676 (december). Rømer's explanation is published in Journal des Sçavans in an article not written by himself and with some misunderstandings (See "Ole Rømer og den bevægede Jord - en dansk førsteplads" by Jan Teuber in the book "Ole Rømer - videnskabsmand og samfundstjener", Gads Forlag 2004, Copenhagen, p. 213). 1677 july 25. London, in Philosophical Transactions, vol XII,no. 136, Rømer's discovery is mentioned. In the 7 months between Sçavans and Philosophical, there was nearly nothing about the discovery. 1677 sept. 16. Huygens in Holland reads Rømer's paper in Philosophical, and he immediately sends a letter to Rømer asking for more information. From the article he understands that light travells one earthorbitdiameter in 22 minutes. 1678. Huygens presents his "Traite de lumiere" for Academie des Scienses. In that, he uses the diameter of earth's orbit and what he thought was Rømer's value for the light's delay in travelling over the orbits diameter to calculate the speed of light (he was the first to present the velosity with terrestrial units, 162/3 earthdiam./sec.). 1679. Rømer mentions a eclipse of the moon in the letter above. 1680. In London, Hooke criticizes Rømer, as he maintains that light travels instantaneously. His argument goes as follows:
1686. In the first edition of Newtons "Principia", he uses the 22 min. 1690. "Traite de Lumiere" by Huygens is printed in Paris. 1692. In his papers, "Adversaria" fol. 17, Rømer makes use of the light to determine the distance to the stars (founded on Tychos starpositions, he found the parallax to be less than 3,5'). He sets the distance to more than eight lightdays. 1704. "Optics" by Newton is published. Here he says that it takes only 8 minutes for the light to pass from the Sun to the Earth. Maybe Newton himself has computed the 8 minutes from "Sçavans" instead of using the 22 minutes he used earlier. 1706. Rømer writes in a remark in "Adversaria" (his notebook, Royal library, Copenhagen, fol. ya) that Newton uses 8 min. for the Earth-Sun distance, as if he had not seen it before. 1713. In the second edition of "Principia", Newton again uses the 8 minutes. 1842. Doppler explains the Doppler effect. 1849. The French scientists Fizeau og Foucault measure the velocity of light with an instrument placed on the Earth. Fizeau informs the French Academy July 23'th, 1849. *) From
observations in august 1676 he calculates that a mooneclipse
november 9th must be delayed 10 minutes. From august we know
of three observations the 7th, 14th
and 23rd. It was possible to calculate the
relative distances in the solar system by help of the Kepler
Laws. If we use the software WinStars 2 to find the
Earth-Jupiter distances on the relevant dates we get:
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