The

Universal
Speed Limit
By Allen Habibovic

Acknowledgements
I

would like to take the time to thank

Mr.Paychek for helping me with this
experiment and my friend Jack with
helping me find the idea.

Purpose
The

purpose of this project is to

experiment with different media for light
to travel through, and how that specific
medium affects the speed of light, and
how much does it slow it down by.

Hypothesis
It

is hypothesized that light will travel

faster through air than any of the other
media tested. It is hypothesized that
water will be the second fastest because
its not very dense, its transparent, and
it has simple molecular structure.

Materials
Laser Pointer
Paper
Protractor
Paper
Glass
Water
Salt water(we used ~3.5% salt In water)
Sugar water(we used ~3.5% sugar in water)
99% Isopropyl Alcohol
Vegetable oil
Ice

Procedure Part 1
Fold

a clean sheet of paper in half

Place one of the test materials on the
center of the folded paper.
Trace an outline of the object onto the
paper.
Use a marker to make a small dot on the
edge of the paper. This is where you aim
the laser.

Procedure Part 2
Mark the laser beam path in and out of
the object.
Use a protractor to measure the angle of
incidence and the angle of refraction.
Record all of this data.
Use snells law to calculate the speed of
light in the medium.
Repeat these steps with different
materials for comparison.

Data

In order to calculate the speed of light for

air, first a vacuum is required for the air to
pass in from. Since in this project a vacuum
was not available, the calculated speed of
air was not determined. To determine the
speed, use the formula V = c/n2, where v is
velocity, c is the speed of light, and n2 is
the index of refraction for the second
medium. The most accurate measure for
the speed of light in air is 299,702,547mps.

Data

Medium

1st Angle

2nd Angle

Index of
Refractio
n

Speed

Glass(3.5c
m block)

30

19.5

1.53

195,424,83
6

Water

30

22.5

1.31

228,849,20
4

Ice

30

22.4

1.31

228,000,00
0

Sugar
Water

30

23

1.38

217,175,75

Salt Water

30

22.9

1.41

212,555,00
0

Isopropyl

30

21.75

1.35

222,068,48
7

Vegetable

30

20

1.46

205,337,30

Conclusion
The

hypothesis was correct. Light did

travel the fastest through water than all
the other mediums tested. It went
slowest in glass because glass is a
dense solid. It went second slowest
through vegetable oil, which was maybe
due to the color and transparency of the
oil.

Error Analysis
When

dealing with measurements

revolving around such high numbers, a
slight change can affect the results a
lot. Since the experiment was done with
a protractor and with a human eye,
1/100th of a degree off with change the
speed by 1,400,000 mps. Accuracy was
definitely a problem in this experiment.

Pics