iPlayer Radio What's New?
Speaker icon LISTEN
Show more Show less
ON NOW : Today
22/05/2013

Today News and current affairs. With Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Thought for the Day.

ON NEXT : 09:00 Midweek
Image for The Speed of Light

Play now 45 mins

The Speed of Light

Duration:
45 minutes
First broadcast:
Thursday 30 November 2006

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the speed of light. Scientists and thinkers have been fascinated with the speed of light for millennia. Aristotle wrongly contended that the speed of light was infinite, but it was the 17th Century before serious attempts were made to measure its actual velocity – we now know that it’s 186,000 miles per second.

Then in 1905 Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity predicted that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. This then has dramatic effects on the nature of space and time. It’s been thought the speed of light is a constant in Nature, a kind of cosmic speed limit, now the scientists aren’t so sure.

With John Barrow, Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Gresham Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University; Iwan Morus, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science at The University of Wales, Aberystwyth; Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Visiting Professor of Astrophysics at Oxford University.

  • Further Reading

    John D. Barrow, The Constants of Nature: From Alpha to Omega (Jonathan Cape, London and Pantheon, New York, 2002)

    John D. Barrow, The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless (Pantheon, 2005)

    For a general overview of nineteenth-century physics, especially attitudes about the ether and Brit/German differences –
    Iwan Morus, When Physics became King (University of Chicago Press, 2005)

    For theories of light after Newton –
    Geoffrey Cantor, Optics after Newton (Manchester University Press, 1984)

    Still the best Maxwell biography with a nice selection of extracts from letters and the like -
    Lewis Campbell and William Garnett, The Life of James Clerk Maxwell (Macmillan, 1882)

    Good on the background and context to Einstein -
    Peter Galison, Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps (Sceptre, 2004)

Broadcasts

In Our Time Downloads

melvyn-bragg.jpg

Every episode of In Our Time - available to download to listen to when & where you want.

Free downloads

  1. Image for In Our Time Archive: Culture

    In Our Time Archive: Culture

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of ideas as it applies to culture - from literature...

  2. Image for In Our Time Archive: History

    In Our Time Archive: History

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the people, conflicts and events that have shaped the world.

  3. Image for In Our Time Archive: Philosophy

    In Our Time Archive: Philosophy

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of philosophy - from ancient Greek thinkers to the...

  4. Image for In Our Time Archive: Religion

    In Our Time Archive: Religion

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of religious ideas - from the faith systems of...

  5. Image for In Our Time Archive: Science

    In Our Time Archive: Science

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of ideas and the evolution of the sciences - from...

  6. Image for In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg

    In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of ideas - including topics drawn from philosophy,...

BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.