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Curiosity aside, this year's magic seminar still had to go on. Over the three days, three Morning Star Medal winners emerged.
They were Glenn who performed the magic of focusing light, Fulla who represented Anthony on stage to explain the theory of electromagnetism, and...
Yolande, who made a crude microscope... This wizard from the prophecy school was speechless after being refuted by Lynn at last year's seminar. He learned from his mistakes and devoted himself to research.
While using an astronomical telescope to observe distant stars, Yolande suddenly had an idea to make some improvements to this thing and successfully made a microscope.
Although the two had clashed at a seminar a year ago, Lin En did not take this small conflict to heart. It was nothing more than an academic dispute. It was normal to argue fiercely. The other party did not deliberately use some despicable means to disgust him, so Lin En was still very generous and gave Yolande the nomination for the Morning Star Medal.
This kind of magnanimity made Yolande feel ashamed.
He was prepared to be targeted this time and even wrote a speech of tens of thousands of words in advance to explain the importance of this research. However, he did not expect that it would never be used at all. Instead, Lin En was the first judge to suggest that he be awarded the Morning Star Medal.
During the past few days of working together, Rafael kept asking indirect questions, hoping that Lynn could reveal some details, but all of them were blocked by the latter with irrelevant answers... He could only mutter to himself, wondering if Sanchez's guess was right, and the magic star was not completely sure about the experiment, so he had been hiding it.
Lin En ignored the various rumors spreading in the wizarding land. After returning to the lounge of the Iyeta School, he called Alok and others over and asked about their preparations.
"Dean Lin, the gears you asked us to make have already been made!" Alok and Pierce said tiredly.
It took them three days to produce ten gears of the same size, ranging from 500 to 1,200 teeth. In addition, according to the dean's instructions, they had to ensure precision, with the distance between each tooth being exactly the same, with an accuracy of up to one thousandth of a centimeter.
Only official wizards can do such delicate work, which is why Lin En brought them here specially - after all, someone has to be responsible for the work!
Lydia and Johnny were responsible for the production of the semi-transparent mirror and the reflector, which have now been completed.
"Great, it looks like we can start the experiment tonight!" After checking the various experimental supplies, Lynn nodded with satisfaction.
Alok and others were extremely puzzled as to why the dean asked them to make so many gears.
"Are we going to rely on these things to measure the speed of light?" Lydia asked, raising her hand.
"Yes, the gears are enough!" Lin En nodded.
……
At night, in the city of Greenriel, wizards who had received the news and came to watch the experiment filled the entire square.
With the title of Magic Star and the experiment of measuring the speed of light, no one wanted to miss such a grand event.
"Master Lin En, we have been waiting for several days. You are not going to keep us in suspense now, are you?" Raphael said helplessly. He had been thinking about what other methods he could use to conduct the experiment these days, but he had racked his brains but came up with no ideas.
"My method is very simple, and everything you need is here!" Lynn said with a smile.
Raphael and others looked at the experimental device in front of Lin En with curiosity. The most eye-catching thing was naturally the strange-looking alchemical instrument. After Lin En's explanation, they realized that this thing was used to emit light beams, and the principle was similar to Glenn's focusing magic.
There is a reflector placed on the city wall of Dongcheng District, exactly four kilometers away from the square...
"Isn't this the reflector Glenn made a few days ago to measure the speed of light?"
Nancy muttered softly, and the wizards present nodded in unison.
You have to know that Glenn used a hundred mirrors to create a range of one hundred kilometers, but still failed in the end. Although the mirror set up by Lynn crossed most of the city of Greenrill, even if the round-trip distance was taken into account, it was only eight kilometers, less than one-tenth.
It is simply a fantasy to want to measure the speed of light!
"So we need to add this!" Lin En pointed at what Alok was holding. "This is the most critical part of this experiment!"
"Gear?" Raphael recognized it at the first sight. This thing was not unfamiliar to alchemists. It was present in the steam engine made by the Alchemy Society before.
What does this have to do with measuring the speed of light?
Chapter 324: My method is to use gears and light to compare speed!
Under the puzzled gazes of the crowd, Alok installed the gears in front of the alchemical instrument that emitted light beams, and placed a piece of strange-looking glass between them.
Lin En finally explained. "This is a half-mirror! It is different from ordinary glass. As the name suggests, only one side can let the light beam pass through!"
Glenn looked back and forth in amazement. He could see the scene behind him clearly on one side, but it was blurry on the other side.
"This experiment is also very simple. This alchemical instrument emits a beam of light. When the gear is stationary, the light passes through the gap between the teeth and hits the reflector on the opposite side. It will then reflect back along the same path and hit the side that is not transparent, forming a larger light spot for us to see directly!"
As he spoke, Lin En turned on the alchemical instrument, and two beams of light immediately appeared in the air.
Just as he said, the light passed through the semi-transparent mirror, crossed the gap between the two gears, accurately hit the reflector in the distance, then turned back, passed through the gap between the teeth again and hit the semi-transparent mirror.
"But if this gear starts to rotate... then the light that passes through the teeth may be blocked on its way back." Lin En paused, his mind moved, and under the drive of the [Mage's Hand], the gear slowly turned.
Lin En didn't need to explain too much. Everyone could see that the light beam behind the huge gear began to appear and disappear from time to time, and the light spot on the semi-transparent mirror also began to flicker. That was because the light might just pass through the teeth when returning, or it might be blocked by the gear...
Just as the wizards were frowning and thinking about this phenomenon, Lin En's words came again.
"In theory, if the gears rotate fast enough, the light will pass through the first tooth gap and return across a distance of eight kilometers, and then pass through the second gear gap. Then..."
Before Lin En could finish, Glenn said in shock as if he had thought of something. "In this way, every light element that can pass through the tooth gap will definitely return from the second tooth gap. There is no possibility of being blocked, and the light beam and light spot will become extremely obvious!"
Glenn's words were like a huge rock thrown into a calm lake, and the wizards present were immediately in an uproar.
"This is really... a genius idea!" Raphael said with a trembling voice.
He had been wondering what method this magic star would use to measure the speed of light, but he didn't expect that the other party could do it with just a small gear!
The characteristic of this method can be summed up in two words: clever!
The key to this experiment is to synchronize the time it takes for the gear to rotate one section with the time it takes for the light to be emitted and returned.
The subtlety lies in the fact that light needs to travel a full distance of eight kilometers, while the relative gear only needs to rotate slightly to reach the second tooth gap!
In other words, each tooth on the gear represents a distance of eight kilometers traveled by light. If there are a total of one thousand teeth, and they rotate once, light must travel a distance of eight thousand kilometers. Ten rotations would be eighty thousand miles!
The wizards who also understood this couldn't help but gasp. This tiny gear was like a super amplifier!
The speed of light may be incredibly fast, but the speed of gears can also be increased to an extremely fast level...
"This is the speed of gears competing with light!" Harof also said with emotion.
It’s just that Lin En is very unethical. For the gear to move five millimeters (the distance of one tooth), the light must run eight kilometers... a difference of hundreds of thousands of times!
Finally, you just need to know the distance the gear has traveled multiplied by this multiple difference - that is, look at the number of teeth separated on the gear and the number of circles the wheel rotates in one second, and you can reversely calculate the speed of light!
No wonder Lin En was so confident that he could measure the speed of light...
"Amazing, you are worthy of being the Magic Star!" Sanchez said with a sigh.
He was convinced. What kind of brain could come up with such an idea?
However, there were also many wizards watching with confused expressions on their faces.
What are you talking about? I don't understand...
But in order to maintain his dignity as a wizard, he nodded pretentiously and said a few words of praise.
"As expected of the Magic Star..." "That's a good idea! I knew he would have a solution!"
Amidst the praise, there were also many opposing voices. Athos and others insisted that the speed of light was infinite, and no matter how fast Lin En could accelerate the gears, it would be in vain!
"Dean, can we start?" Lydia shouted loudly.
Lynn nodded and asked the halfling girl to start the internal combustion engine and increase the speed of the gears.
Under the gaze of everyone, the 720-tooth gear in front of them slowly began to turn, and then the speed became faster and faster, five circles per second, ten circles, fifteen circles... and soon it turned into an afterimage.
The light beam and the light spot on the half-mirror are also flickering constantly, with the frequency getting faster and faster, because the light is always switching back and forth between passing through and not passing through...
"So fast..." Witch Nancy muttered to herself. She could no longer see the speed of the gears. "At this speed, can light really distinguish the tiny gaps between the teeth?"
You have to know that the distance between each tooth gap is only 0.5 cm, which will become a sharp cutting instrument at high speed. What if the light element cannot find the tooth gap when passing through? Then they can't see it?
"We may not be able to tell the difference, but light can!" Lynn said confidently.
"Look, the frequency of the flashing light beams and light spots seems to... be starting to slow down!" Raphael hurriedly reminded.
He was not the only one who noticed this, because the change was so obvious that it could not be an illusion. After the speed of the gears increased again, the wizards present suddenly showed expressions of fear on their faces...
"The light spot actually...disappeared!"
Sanchez's eyes widened as he saw an extremely strange scene in front of him. The tiny light beam emitted from the alchemical instrument stopped on the gear when it returned, but the light beam from the gear to the half-transmitter suddenly disappeared. It no longer appeared and disappeared like before, and there was no light spot on the half-transmitter.
This is exactly the opposite of what Lynn said...
"What is going on?" Raphael almost pulled his beard off, his mind full of confusion.
"That's because the light that passes through the teeth just happens to hit the tooth joints when it returns. This shows that the speed of light is limited. We are already halfway successful!" Lin En's words rang in everyone's ears.
Chapter 325: Light can circle the continent seven and a half times in just one second!
After Lin En's explanation, the wizards present finally reacted and looked at the gears that kept turning in front of them, their faces full of horror.
This gear actually blocked all the light elements that tried to pass through the teeth, without exception!
"This is not magic!" Athos and others shouted in disbelief.
This strange situation directly proves that the speed of light is not infinite! Otherwise, every light that passes through the tooth gap will return instantly, and there is no possibility of being blocked...
"It works, this method really works!" Glenn murmured to himself.
Just as Lynn said, they have already succeeded halfway. All they need to do next is to continue to speed up, and the returning light will gradually move backwards, passing the blocking tooth segment and reaching the next tooth gap!
"How fast is the speed now?" Raphael asked anxiously.
"It's twenty-five circles per second!" Lydia reported loudly.
"Keep speeding it up, faster!" Raphael shouted loudly.
Lydia glanced at Lynn, then increased the power of the internal combustion engine again as instructed. The speed of the gears immediately increased to several levels, which could only be described as exaggerated. A violent noise rang in everyone's ears.
So much so that people like Alok who were watching were a little worried that this thing might suddenly break.
After accelerating to 35 revolutions per second, the light spot still did not appear, but the speed of the gear was close to the limit!
Although Lin En asked them to reduce the pitch between gears to 0.5 centimeters, the circumference of the gears themselves reached an astonishing seven meters. While maintaining an ultra-high rotation speed, it could collapse at any time!
"Get out of the way, I'll do it!" Harof strode forward and directly interrupted the power provided by the internal combustion engine. He then used magic to instantly accelerate the gears to more than forty revolutions!
In order to ensure accuracy, Harov did not increase the speed too quickly, but increased it at a balanced rate...
When the roulette wheel's speed exceeded 52 revolutions per second, every wizard present could clearly see that a conspicuous spot of light appeared on the half-mirror lens again!
This means that the light that passed through the first slit has returned from the second slit!
Just as everyone was cheering, the entire roulette wheel exploded, and the flying fragments flew in all directions like the sharpest knives!