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ERIC Number: EJ769312
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004-Oct
Pages: 3
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1062-9351
EISSN: N/A
Measure the Earth's Radius and the Speed of Light with Simple and Inexpensive Computer-Based Experiments
Martin, Michael J.
Tech Directions, v64 n3 p23-25 Oct 2004
With new and inexpensive computer-based methods, measuring the speed of light and the Earth's radius--historically difficult endeavors--can be simple enough to be tackled by high school and college students working in labs that have limited budgets. In this article, the author describes two methods of estimating the Earth's radius using two programming commands--"traceout" and "ping." "Pings," which are small data packets of about 100 bytes each, are used by network system administrators to assure that computers are operating and network connections are intact. To measure the speed of light, "ping" signals are reflected between two computers that are connected with Ethernet cards and cables and the round trip home is recorded. On the other hand, "traceroute," a standard utility on virtually all TCP/IP-enabled operating systems, sends a sequence of IP packets to and from computers or network switches, otherwise known as "nodes."
Prakken Publications. 832 Phoenix Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48108. Tel: 734-975-2800; Fax: 734-975-2787; Web site: http://www.techdirections.com/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A