Chapter 331: Chapter 319: It Seems Even the Speed of Light Isn’t Very Fast
The following evening, within Greenrill City, thousands of wizards and civilians had gathered around a street alley, watching Glenn and his associates hang smooth mirrors on every wall of the street…
“Just fifty more mirrors left. Everyone, place them according to the diagram. The angles cannot be off by even a hair!”
Glenn loudly directed Nancy and others to place the mirrors in the proper spots and adjust their angles according to his meticulous calculations.
Thankfully, the steady hands and high precision of the wizards assured that a fifteen degree angle was exactly that, and not sixteen degrees. Otherwise, linking the reflection of light from these hundreds of mirrors would be no easy task.
Just working out the various angles of refraction had taken the seven wizards an entire day!
To Green’s slight relief, the process of borrowing mirrors went very smoothly, as many curious wizards generously contributed their circular mirrors when they learned it was for an experiment to measure the speed of light.
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The council even granted approval for him to use the streets and squares of Greenrill City as the experimental site, after sunset when shops were closed for business.
It took Glenn and his team over an hour to set up the last fifty mirrors. By the time they finished, the sun had set, and Greenrill City was shrouded in darkness.
At his request, there was no candlelight in any of the houses; people could only discern their surroundings by the faint moonlight.
“Glenn, you can tell us now, right? You borrowed so many mirrors for what? To measure the speed of light?” a wizard familiar with Green couldn’t wait to ask.
The anticipation was clear on the faces of those present. With the temptation of the Silver Moon Medal, there was no shortage of wizards wanting to complete this experiment, each with their own plethora of ideas. However, Glenn was the first to put his plan into action!
Facing the crowd’s gazes, Glenn was a bit nervous, but he began to explain nonstop. “My plan involves utilizing the principle that mirrors reflect light to increase the distance the light travels in order to measure the speed of light…”
He had set up a large number of mirrors inside Greenrill City. In a moment, he would create a strong beam of light from the eastern gate and reflect it throughout the city—from east to west, then to the south district, making a full circuit before returning…
“A total of one thousand reflections, covering a distance of one hundred kilometers!” Glenn said with a touch of pride.
He had precisely calculated each point where a mirror was placed, which meant they only had to stand in place and wait for the light to endlessly circle within Greenrill City. Its final landing spot was the tower above their heads!
“At the top of the tower, I’ve placed a white cloth. As soon as we see a visible spot of light on it, it means that the light has completed a circuit and traveled one hundred kilometers. Using the time it took, we can calculate the speed of light,” Glenn explained.
“That’s a novel idea, to think it could be done this way…” Rafael had an epiphany and looked at Glenn, the wizard, with admiration. In this way, they could create a hundred kilometers distance using just a few streets, performing the experiment right under their noses.
The other wizards also suddenly became interested. Glenn’s plan seemed plausible after all. It was a full one hundred kilometers; surely light would need at least a second or two to travel that distance, wouldn’t it?
“Dean Lynn, do you think it’s possible to measure the speed of light this way?” Ailoke couldn’t help but ask, knowing that the Dean too had been preparing for a related experiment recently, which would determine the recipient of a Silver Moon Medal.
“It’s feasible, yet it’s not…” Lynn said with a smile, his words cloaked in mystery, giving no hint of revealing the answer.
There was no denying Glenn’s creativity for even considering such a method, but there were still some aspects he hadn’t fully considered…
Seeing Lynn’s equivocal response, the wizards present couldn’t help but purse their lips, as if even the Star of Magic didn’t know the outcome and was using evasive language to save face.
But that made sense. If he had known in advance, he would have surely measured the speed of light by now… After all, the experiment wasn’t complicated; with enough mirrors, anyone could easily replicate it.
Glenn paid no mind to the crowd’s words and double-checked the diagram in his hand one last time before taking a deep breath to steady himself.
Time ticked by, and about three seconds before the stroke of midnight, Glenn raised his hand. A fiery orb appeared in the sky, illuminating the entire street.
But this was just the beginning. Glenn and five other wizards cast spells together, and as magic power surged, layers of reflection began appearing around the fireball, constructing a closed sphere in mid-air, enveloping the fireball and leaving only a one-centimeter-wide hole…
All the light released by the fireball was concentrated and shot out through the small aperture, aiming for the first circular mirror.
Glenn’s timing was impeccable; just as the magic clock struck midnight, the entire street was lit up with dazzling beams of light, reflecting off the mirrors and stretching to the horizon in the eyes of countless onlookers.
Nancy stood behind Glenn, fixated on the tower’s summit, daring not to blink lest she missed the appearance of the light spot. In her hand was a magic clock, ready to stop it the moment she saw the spot. The time it stopped at would be the duration the light needed to travel one hundred kilometers.
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One second… three seconds… five seconds… ten seconds…
Nancy’s eyes were sore from staring, but the white cloth on the tower remained empty, with no light spot appearing.
“Seems the speed of light isn’t that fast after all… it’s been over ten seconds, why hasn’t it arrived?” Ailoke muttered.
“This is a full one hundred kilometers we’re talking about. Even if the light is fast, it has to take at least half a minute, right?” Piers said with a smile.
Rafael and others, however, furrowed their brows, wondering if something had gone wrong with the experiment.
Thinking thus, several Grand Wizards took to the sky, intending to survey the entire city from above and find the issue.
Below, Glenn also sensed something amiss; the intensity of light through the reflections in his line of sight was weakening far faster than he had anticipated…
About ten seconds later, Rafael and the others returned from the air, their expressions tinged with resignation.
“Master Rafael, how does it look? Has the light not arrived yet?” one of Glenn’s friends quickly stepped forward and asked with curiosity.