Measuring the speed of light with chocolate
Discover how you can measure the speed of light by melting chocolate in your kitchen in this article from the ‘Avogadro’s lab’ series.
Light is an important energy source for many chemical reactions, such as the reactions that harvest light energy in plants. Scientists now understand a lot about the nature of light, but it hasn’t been easy. Take, for example, the speed of light. Thanks to Einstein, we know nothing can travel faster than light in a vacuum, but it took many years to work out how to calculate its actual speed.
If you have access to a microwave oven, you could try measuring the speed of light yourself using raisins, poppadums or chocolate! Read on to find out how.
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