During the Apollo XI Moon landing, a retroreecting panel was erected on the Moons surface. The speed of light can be found by measuring the time it takes a laser beam to travel from Earth, reect from the panel, and return to Earth. If this interval is found to be 2.51 s, what is the measured speed of light? Take the center-to-center distance from Earth to Moon to be 3.84 108 m. Assume that the Moon is directly overhead and do not neglect the sizes of the Earth and Moon.
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Textbook Solutions for College Physics
Question
Figure P22.2 shows the apparatus used by Armand H. L. Fizeau (18191896) to measure the speed of light. The basic idea is to measure the total time it takes light to travel from some point to a distant mirror and back. If d is the distance between the light source and the mirror, and if the transit time for one round-trip is t, then the speed of light is c 2d/t. To measure the transit time, Fizeau used a rotating toothed wheel, which converts an otherwise continuous beam of light to a series of light pulses. The rotation of the wheel controls what an observer at the light source sees. For example, assume that the toothed wheel of the Fizeau experiment has 360 teeth and is rotating at a speed of 27.5 rev/s when the light from the source is extinguishedthat is, when a burst of light passing through opening A in Figure P22.2 is blocked by tooth B on return. If the distance to the mirror is 7 500 m, nd the speed of light.
Solution
The first step in solving 22 problem number 2 trying to solve the problem we have to refer to the textbook question: Figure P22.2 shows the apparatus used by Armand H. L. Fizeau (18191896) to measure the speed of light. The basic idea is to measure the total time it takes light to travel from some point to a distant mirror and back. If d is the distance between the light source and the mirror, and if the transit time for one round-trip is t, then the speed of light is c 2d/t. To measure the transit time, Fizeau used a rotating toothed wheel, which converts an otherwise continuous beam of light to a series of light pulses. The rotation of the wheel controls what an observer at the light source sees. For example, assume that the toothed wheel of the Fizeau experiment has 360 teeth and is rotating at a speed of 27.5 rev/s when the light from the source is extinguishedthat is, when a burst of light passing through opening A in Figure P22.2 is blocked by tooth B on return. If the distance to the mirror is 7 500 m, nd the speed of light.
From the textbook chapter Reection and Refraction of Light you will find a few key concepts needed to solve this.
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