About This Video
Adam Savage walks through two spectacular examples of profound scientific discoveries that came from simple, creative methods anyone could have followed -- Eratosthenes' calculation of the Earth's circumference around 200 BC and Hippolyte Fizeau's measurement of the speed of light in 1849.
Meet The Creators
Adam Savage
Educator
Kari Mulholland
Director
Jeremiah Dickey
Animator
Franz Palomares
Compositor
Celeste Lai
Artist
Additional Resources for you to Explore
Armand Fizeau is also famous for his experiment measuring the speed of light through water; the experiment definitively discredited Isaac Newton’s theory that light is composed of small, discrete particles that travel at a finite velocity and possess kinetic energy (the corpuscle theory of light). Research Newton’s theory and Fizeau’s experiment. Then investigate a modern-day application of controlling and manipulating the speed of light—quantum computers—by watching a “Physics for the 21st Century” video from Annenberg Media at http://www.learner.org/courses/physics/unit/unit_vid.html?unit=7.
