SPEED OF LIGHT
BRITISH SCIENTISTS’ COMPUTATION
(Rec. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON. October 14. The generally accepted figure for the speed of light—lB6,27l miles a second —has neen wrong by 11 miles a second. The British National Physical Laboratory claimed this in an announcement to-day. The laboratory’s latest experiments, the announcement said, had confirmed
the British figure of 186,282 miles a second, obtained in 1947. The British figure therefore displaced the previous figure established by an American scientist, Albert Abraham Michelson. Recent experiments in the United States and Sweden agreed with the new British figure to within one kilometre a second.
The new British figure, said the laboratory, would enable a more accurate use of radar, and the establishment of a new and finer basis for calculations in atomic research, astronomy and radio.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26244, 16 October 1950, Page 7
Word Count
131SPEED OF LIGHT Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26244, 16 October 1950, Page 7
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