Weber’s experiment is an important experiment in the history of physics that helped to demonstrate the wave nature of light. The experiment, conducted by German physicist Ernst Heinrich Weber in 1834, is considered one of the earliest successful experiments that supported the wave theory of light. This experiment is also credited with helping to disprove the particle theory of light, which was proposed by Newton.
Weber’s experiment involved the use of two mirrors placed at a distance of 1 meter from each other. A source of light was placed between the two mirrors and an observer was placed at the end of the room. Weber then measured the time it took for the light to travel from the end of the room to the observer. He found that, regardless of the distance between the two mirrors, the total time taken for the light to travel from the end of the room to the observer remained the same. From this, Weber concluded that light must be a wave and not a particle, as particles would not travel at the same speed regardless of the distance between the two mirrors.
Weber’s experiment was an important milestone in the history of physics and helped to prove the wave theory of light. It also showed that light had a constant speed, which was an important discovery. Weber’s experiment is still widely cited today and is a major part of the history of physics.
References
Weber, E. H. (1834). Experimenta circa legem virium in natura nascentium. Annalen der Physik, 53(1), 565–582. doi:10.1002/andp.18340053101
Halliday, D., & Resnick, R. (2018). Fundamentals of Physics. John Wiley & Sons.
Cromer, A. (2020). Physics: From Newton to Einstein. Columbia University Press.