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Rotational Speed with the Speed of Light |
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| Mar16-05, 09:20 PM | #1 |
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Rotational Speed with the Speed of Light
An early method of measuring the speed of light makes use of a rotating slotted wheel. A beam of light passes through a slot at the outside edge of the wheel, travels to a distant mirror, and returns to the wheel just in time to pass through the next slot in the wheel. One such slotted wheel has a radius of 11.0 cm and 800 slots at its edge. Measurements taken when the mirror was L = 500 m from the wheel indicated a speed of light of 3.0 x10^5 km/s.
My work: Conversions: .11m 3.0x10^8m/s L = 500m Arclength = 2pi*.11m Rotational speed = (2pi*.11m)/800 Rotational speed = ((2pi*.11m)/800) * Speed of Light Rotational speed = 259181.39 rads/s <- This is wrong I did (Arclength/Slots) * Speed of Light to calculate 1 slot's worth. What was the (constant) rotational speed of the wheel? (rad/s) What was the translational speed of a point on the edge of the wheel? (m/s) |
| Mar16-05, 11:41 PM | #2 |
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You have not even used the length L.
Time of travell for the light to travell from the disc and back is t= 2L/v where v is the given speed of light. Now within this time how much the disc has rotated? [tex]2\pi / 800[/tex]. Angular speed is anlgle in rad / time = 2357 rad/s Tangantial speed is simply radius * angular speed. |
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