 Galileo is lesser known for , yet still credited with , being one of the first to understand sound frequency . By scraping a chisel at different speeds , he linked the pitch of the sound produced to the spacing of the chisel 's skips , a measure of frequency . In 1638 , Galileo described an experimental method to measure the speed of light by arranging that two observers , each having lanterns equipped with shutters , observe each other 's lanterns at some distance . The first observer opens the shutter of his lamp , and , the second , upon seeing the light , immediately opens the shutter of his own lantern . The time between the first observer 's opening his shutter and seeing the light from the second observer 's lamp indicates the time it takes light to travel back and forth between the two observers . Galileo reported that when he tried this at a distance of less than a mile , he was unable to determine whether or not the light appeared instantaneously . Sometime between Galileo 's death and 1667 , the members of the Florentine Accademia del Cimento repeated the experiment over a distance of about a mile and obtained a similarly inconclusive result . We now know that the speed of light is far too fast to be measured by such methods ( with human shutter @-@ openers on Earth ) . 
