Follows the study of light from learning how to measure it to harnessing its power and includes the research being done today.

Follows the study of light from learning how to measure it to harnessing its power and includes the research being done today.

Light is the most important part of our lives. Louise Riofrio, while working as a Scientist at NASA, made the biggest discovery of the century--the Speed of Light is changing. Starting when a child's eyes first open she describes how we learn about the world through light in our first few months of life, then how we discovered that Earth is round, and how we found we are part of a solar system and a galaxy. The Speed of Light takes you around the world from the Mediterranean to Hawaii in 100 illustrations showing where discoveries were made. This new edition shows how the size of the Universe is related to the cells of our bodies, a new discovery even closer to human life. The Speed of Light is your guide to the Universe.

Kirkus Star Junior Library Guild Gold Selection Mark Weston’s high-interest story and Rebecca Evans’s colorful graphics make scientific discovery the coolest thing this side of Jupiter. More than two centuries before Einstein, using a crude telescope and a mechanical timepiece, Danish astronomer Ole Romer measured the speed of light with astounding accuracy. How was he able to do this when most scientists didn’t even believe that light traveled? Like many paradigm-shattering discoveries, Romer’s was accidental. Night after night he was timing the disappearance and reappearance of Jupiter’s moon Io behind the huge, distant planet. Eventually he realized that the discrepancies in his measurements could have only one explanation: Light had a speed, and it took longer to reach Earth when Earth was farther from Jupiter. All he needed then to calculate light’s speed was some fancy geometry.

This book is a science text about light for the general reader; it is also an adventure story and a detective story revealing how the secrets of light were uncovered. Readers can share in the thrill of each discovery and learn about some of the myriad applications opened up by these fascinating discoveries, including the telescope, fiber optics, the laser, and even the recent optical detection of gravitational waves from space.With Professor Fortson, distinguished experimental physicist, as your tour guide, follow the journey from the 17th century — when Descartes first calculated the size of the rainbow — to the 20th century, when the quantum theory of light was born. Learn how Huygens, Newton, Planck, Einstein and many other great scientists solved one mystery after another, from the reason underlying the law of refraction to the puzzle of the photoelectric effect. The journey ends with the solution to the most challenging mystery of all: that light is both a wave and a particle — a fascinating finale.

This is the human story and adventures of the great scientists who measured the speed of light -- which takes eight minutes to get here from the sun, so that when we look at the stars we are looking back in time. The book narrates how, since the ancient Greeks, scientists from Faraday, Maxwell, Fizeau and Michelson struggled to understand how light can travel through the vacuum of outer space, unless it is filled with a ghostly invisible vortex Aether foam. Thereader moves from Galileo's observations of the eclipses of Jupiter's moon for navigation, to Einstein's theories and his equation E = mc2, and all the quantum weirdness which followed. Space probes,the Transit of Venus expeditions, the discovery of radio, optics and satellite navigation, and the amazing scientific instruments built to detect the Aether wind are described.

Light is one of the most important parts of our lives. L RIOFRIO has been working as a scientist at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. While studying the Moon, Riofrio made a discovery that could change science. Light is slowing down, as predicted years before. Starting with a child first opening her eyes, Riofrio tells the whole history of exploration and light. From Earth's shape to our latest discoveries about the Universe, you will follow the footsteps of scientists and explorers. This new edition tells of the biggest science story of 2014, "discovery of the century," the collapse of old ideas and why 2015 is The Year of Light.

In this second installment of the Terran Chronicles series, the ?Terran? is preparing for her maiden voyage. Humanity?s next frontier, the exploration of space, is tantalizingly close. The daring crew rapidly find themselves overwhelmed and ill prepared for the dangers that lie ahead. Discovery introduces some new characters, while at the same time bids farewell to others as the adventure unfolds.

Discusses the scientific research which led to the current theories of the speed of light, from classical ideas and the challenges of the Middle Ages to new theories and modern measurements.

You need no specialised knowledge of science to find interest and value in this unique book. The author's grasp of all spheres of science is so firm that he can explain complex ideas with startling clarity. Each chapter covers a half-century, and the pithy 200-300 word stories are arranged chronologically.