Low-cost experiment to measure the speed of light

Faraz Mehdi and Kiran M. Kolwankar

Ramniranjan Jhunjhunwala College

In this paper, we demonstrate a low-cost method to measure the speed of light. It uses instruments which are readily available in any undergraduate laboratory in a developing country and some components which are inexpensive. The method is direct as it measures the time of flight of the LASER beam and easy to implement. It will allow students to verify the finite value of the speed of light first hand. It can be part of the undergraduate syllabus as a regular experiment or a demonstration experiment.