English

Foucault's method in new settings

Optics 2014-09-22 v1 Physics Education

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce two simple and inexpensive versions of the well-known Foucault method for measuring the speed of light. In a footprint of just 20 cm by 270 cm with readily available laboratory items and a webcam, we obtained c=296720±3000c=296720\pm3000 km/s, and c=302295±3000c=302295\pm3000 km/s, respectively, both within less than a per cent of the defined value. The experiment also prepares students to work with large amounts of data.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1409.5573,
  title  = {Foucault's method in new settings},
  author = {Z. Vörös and G. Weihs},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.5573},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

9 pages, 12 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T06:00:35.481Z