Page:Light waves and their uses.djvu/68

50 in Fig. 44. Light from a source s falls on the revolving mirror R, and by means of a lens L forms an image of s at the surface of a large concave mirror M. The light retraces its path and forms an image which coincides with s if the mirror R is at rest or is turning slowly. When the rotation is sufficiently rapid the image is formed at s$1$, and the displacement ss$1$ is readily measured.

If the distance LM is occupied by a column of water, the displacement would be less if the velocity of light is greater in water than in air, as it should be according to the corpuscular theory; and if the undulatory theory is correct, the displacement would be greater. Foucault found the displacement greater, and thus the corpuscular theory received its death-blow.

It remained for subsequent experiment to determine whether the undulatory theory was true, because it was not sufficient to show that the velocity was smaller in water; it was necessary to show that the ratio of the two velocities was equal to the index of refraction of the water, which is 1.33. Experiments showed that the ratio of the two velocities is almost identical with this number, thus furnishing an important confirmation of the undulatory theory.

Ordinarily the index of refraction is found by measuring the amount of bending which a beam of light experiences in