Lightspeed : the ghostly aether and the race to measure the speed of light / John C.H. Spence.

Author/creator Spence, John C. H. author.
Format Book
EditionFirst edition.
PublicationOxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2020.
Copyright Date©2020
Description244 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 23 cm
Subjects

Contents Early ideas -- Ole Roemer, who started it all -- Measuring the cosmos : parallax and the transit of Venus -- James Bradley, sailing on the Thames -- The nineteenth century : light beams across the rooftops of Paris -- Faraday and Maxwell : the grand synthesis -- Albert Michelson and the aether wind -- Einstein : the great clarification -- Radio and telecommunications : spacecraft -- Faster-than-light schemes : quantum reality.
Abstract This book tells the human story of one of man's greatest intellectual adventure--how it came to be understood that light travels at a finite speed, so that when we look up at the stars, we are looking back in time. And how the search for an absolute frame of reference in the universe led so improbably to Einstien's famous equation E=mc². -- Book jacket.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 231-235) and index.
Genre/formHistory.
LCCN 2019937510
ISBN0198841965 hardback
ISBN9780198841968 hardback

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner General Stacks QC407 .S64 2020 ✔ Available Place Hold