1900's Science and Technology

The Velocity of Light


Monograph

By: Albert A. Michelson

Date: 1902

Source: Michelson, Albert A. The Velocity of Light. Vol. 9 of The Decennial Publications. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1902, 7–9.

About the Author: Albert Abraham Michelson (1852–1931) was born in what is today Germany. He immigrated with his family to Panama, then to San Francisco. In 1873 he graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, where he stayed to teach physics. In 1881 he resigned from the navy to accept a professorship at the Case Institute of Applied Science in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1907 he became the first American to win a Nobel Prize in physics.

Introduction

In the seventeenth century Isaac Newton passed white light through a prism, refracting it into a spectrum of colors. Light, he reasoned, must consist of particles of different sizes, with each size corresponding to...

(The entire page is 1771 words.)

Want to read the whole thing?

Subscribe now to read the rest of this article. Plus, get access to:

  • 30,000+ literature study guides
  • Critical essays on more than 30,000 works of literature from Salem on Literature (exclusive to eNotes)
  • An unparalleled literary criticism section. 40,000 full-length or excerpted essays.
  • Content from leading academic publishers, all easily citable with our "Cite this page" button.
  • 100% satisfaction guarantee READ MORE