Finding the Speed of Light: The 1676 Discovery that Dazzled the World

Finding the Speed of Light: The 1676 Discovery that Dazzled the World is about a man named Ole Romer who lived in Denmark in the 1600s. Ole’s father was a sea captain who owned a large sailboat. He taught Ole how to steer the boat at night by watching the stars. When Ole was eighteen years old, he went to college in Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, and he learned about astronomy. A scientist from France, Jean-Felix Picard, was so impressed by Ole that he was invited to be an astronomer in Paris. After Ole made his telescope, he liked to watch Jupiter and its moons. Ole noticed that Io (one of Jupiter’s moons) would be faster or slower one some nights than others. Ole thought about Io for a long time, then realized that light isn’t instant–it takes time. When he shared his discovery, many people didn’t believe him, but his math was hard to argue with.

I really liked reading Finding the Speed of Light because it was educational. I loved that it was kind of like a comic book, with speech balloons. This made it fun to read. I also loved the illustrations. I would recommend Finding the Speed of Light: The 1676 Discovery that Dazzled the World to kids who wonder about science and astronomy and who want to learn about the speed of light.