Physics: Measuring the Speed of Light During this laboratory you will attempt to
ID: 1998181 • Letter: P
Question
Physics: Measuring the Speed of Light
During this laboratory you will attempt to measure the speed of light using a microwave oven. You and your lab partner are responsible for typing up a report on your findings. Unlike other experiments you will not be given a specific set of instructions for carrying out the measurement, instead you’ll be tasked with finding those on your own.
Introduction: Standing waves on a string occur at specific frequencies related to the velocity of the waves in that string. By examining the positions of the nodes and antinodes one can determine the wavelength of the waves traveling along the string. If the frequency of those waves is also known, then the velocity of those waves can be calculated.
The waves inside of a microwave are also standing waves. So can we use this same procedure to calculate the speed of light by measuring the distances between the antinodes (hot spots) inside a microwave oven?
The Goal: To examine the possibility of measuring the speed of light using a microwave oven and some food item such as chocolate or cheese.
Two paragragraphs each responses below questions: kindly highlight steps for each answers.
1. INVESTIGATION: See what others have done. Using the internet, look up papers and videos of others who have attempted to measure the speed of light using a microwave oven. What was their procedure? What were they’re results? Can they be verified through the presented media? How accurate are they? What are their claims? Etc.
2. EXPERIMENTATION: Choose any one of the experiments and attempt to reproduce it using your own microwave. Report the results of your first attempt. Include a picture including your measuring device so that your results can be verified.
3. RESULTS: What were your results? If you were able to calculate the speed of light, what was your percent error? Compare your results with
Explanation / Answer
We can measure speed of light in microwave oven by following method
To do this experiment you will need the following materials and equipment:
Apparatus Required
Microwave oven,Plate (safe for use in microwave),Oven mitts,3-6 eggs,Ruler, Calculator
Procedure
9 The spacing of the hot spots will be equal to one-half of the wavelength of the microwaves.
10 Calculate the speed of the microwaves using the wavelength (measured) and frequency (from the oven label). Remember to use your upper and lower boundary measurements to put error limits on your measurement.
11. How closely does your calculation agree with published values for the speed of light?