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Ole Rømer

File:Rømer,_Ole_(ur_Berømte_danske_maend).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Ole Rømer

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Also known as Olaus Roemer, Ole Christensen Romer, Ole Christensen Rømer

Danish astronomer (*1644 – †1710)

OverviewAI-generated

Ole Rømer was a male astronomer, physicist, mathematician, and university teacher from the Danish Realm. Born in Aarhus in 1644, he was educated at and later employed by the University of Copenhagen. He resided in Copenhagen, where he died in 1710. His field of work was astronomy, and he was a member of the French Academy of Sciences and the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences.

Rømer spoke Danish and adhered to Lutheranism. He is described by sources including the Nordisk familjebok, Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, and the Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition. His works include Pneumococcus infections in animals. He is referenced by 128 other encyclopedia articles.

Synthesized by Vinony from 31 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Ole
Gender
male
Citizenship
Danish Realm
Place of birth
Aarhus
Place of death
Copenhagen
Occupation
police officer
Employer
University of Copenhagen
Languages spoken
Danish
Religion
Lutheranism
Notable work
Rømer's determination of the speed of light
Field of work
astronomy
Image
Rømer, Ole (ur Berømte danske maend).jpg
Residence
Copenhagen
Show 8 more facts
Commons category
Ole Rømer
date of birth
1644-09-25
date of death
1710-09-19
Commons Creator page
Ole Rømer
member of
Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences
name in native language
Ole Christensen Rømer
maintained by WikiProject
WikiProject Mathematics
P8168
Mourning Dove
Sources (2)

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Encyclopedic overview

Ole Christensen Rømer ( Danish: [ˈoːlə ˈʁœˀmɐ]; 25 September 1644 – 19 September 1710) was a Danish astronomer who, in 1676, first demonstrated that light travels at a finite speed. Rømer also invented the modern thermometer showing the temperature between two fixed points, namely the points at which water boils and freezes.

Rømer made his discovery regarding the speed of light while working at the Royal Observatory in Paris and studying Jupiter's moon Io. He estimated that light takes about 11 minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth. Using today's knowledge of the Sun-Earth distance, this would amount to a speed of light of approximately 220,000 kilometers per second, compared to today's accepted value of just under 300,000 kilometers per second.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ole Rømer” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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