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VIII.—A Measurement of the Velocity of Light in Water

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2012

R. A. Houstoun
R. A. Houstoun
Affiliation:
Natural Philosophy Department, University of Glasgow
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Extract

In the Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. (Houstoun, 1941) I described a new method of measuring the velocity of light. Owing to the difficulties of the times progress has been slow, but I have now succeeded in measuring the velocity of light in water and communicate the result here.

Previous Measurements.—Every elementary textbook on Light explains how Newton's, corpuscular theory required the velocity of light in water to be μ times the velocity in air, whereas Huygens's wave theory required it to be I/μ times the velocity in air, and how Foucault's determination decided between the two theories. As a matter of fact it did, but Foucault's determination was not an accurate one and there have been only four previous determinations of the velocity of light in water, none of which can lay claim to accuracy. These are the determinations of Foucault (1850), Fizeau and Bréguet (1850), A. A. Michelson (1891), and Gutton (1911).

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Section A: Mathematics , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , 1944 , pp. 58 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1944

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References

REFERENCES TO LITERATURE

Arago, F., 1850. “Note sur le système d'expériences proposé en 1838, pour prononcer définitivement entre la theorie des ondes et la theorie de l'émission,” Comptes rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, XXX, 489.Google Scholar
Fizeau, H., and Bréguet, L., 1850. “Note sur l'expérience relative à la vitesse comparative de la lumière dans l'air et dans l'eau,” Comptes rendus, XXX, 562. “Sur l'expérience relative à la vitesse comparative de la lumière dans l'eau et dans l'air,” Comptes rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, 771.Google Scholar
Foucault, L., 1850. “Méthode generale pour mesurer la vitesse de la lumière dans l'air et les milieux transparent. Vitesses relatives de la lumière dans l'air et dans l'eau. Projet d'experience sur la vitesse de propagation du calorique rayonnant,” Comptes rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, XXX, 551.Google Scholar
Gutton, C., 1911. “Expériences sur la vitesse de la lumière dans les milieux refringents,” Comptes rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, CLII, 1089.Google Scholar
Houstoun, R. A., 1941. “A New Way of Measuring the Velocity of Light,” Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., LXI, 102.Google Scholar
Michelson, A. A., 1891. “Supplementary Measures of the Velocities of white and coloured Light in air, water, and carbon disulphide,” Astronomical Papers for the American Ephemeris, II, 231.Google Scholar