Abstract:
This essay focuses on the cooperative efforts between A. A. Michelson, physicist, and Elmer Ambrose Sperry, inventor, to produce the instrumentation for the determination of the speed of light. At the conclusion of experiments made in 1926, Michelson assigned the Sperry instruments the highest marks for accuracy. The value of the speed of light accepted by many today (299,792.5 km/sec) varies only 2.5 km/sec from that obtained using the Sperry octagonal steel mirror. The main problems of producing the instrumentation, human error in the communication of ideas to effect that instrumentation, a brief description of the experiments to determine the speed of light, and the analysis and evaluation of the results are discussed.
