Olaus Roemer, a Dutch astronomer, was the first to calculate the speed of light, in the year 1676. Galileo, an Italian astronomer, had attempted to do so, but the mathematics that he was using at the time were not sufficient to correctly calculate the speed. Two hundred years later, Einstein developed his theory of Special Relativity which said that the speed of light was constant.
Roemer relied on the moons of Jupiter to make his calculations. He looked at the eclipses that were occurring, as well as the time that elapsed between each one. Roemer correctly reasoned that the Earth was moving away from Jupiter at times, and then at others, moving closer. He then calculated the rate of speed, giving us the mean numbers for the speed of light
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Roemer’s estimation was that the speed of light was 140,000 miles per second. With mathematics still crude, it was a fair assumption and one that was close to the mean numbers that we have today.