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Michelson-Morley experiment, an attempt to detect the velocity of Earth with respect to the hypothetical luminiferous ether, a medium in space proposed to carry light waves. First performed in Germany in 1880–81 by the physicist A.A. Michelson, the test was later refined in 1887 by Michelson and Edward W. Morley in the United States.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The Wavelike Nature of Sound
- Is Light a Wave?
- If Light is a Wave, What is Waving?
- Detecting the Aether Wind: the Michelson-Morley Experiment
Actually, sound was already quite well understood by the ancient Greeks. The essential point they had realized is that sound is generated by a vibrating material object, such as a bell, a string or a drumhead. Their explanation was that the vibrating drumhead, for example, alternately pushes and pulls on the air directly above it, sending out wav...
Bearing in mind the above minireview of the properties of waves, let us now reconsider the question of whether light consists of a stream of particles or is some kind of wave. The strongest argument for a particle picture is that light travels in straight lines. You can hear around a corner, at least to some extent, but you certainly can’t see. ...
Having established that light is a wave, though, we still haven’t answered one of the major objections raised above. Just what is waving? We discussed sound waves as waves of compression in air. Actually, that is only one case—sound will also travel through liquids, like water, and solids, like a steel bar. It is found experimentally that, othe...
Detecting the aether wind was the next challenge Michelson set himself after his triumph in measuring the speed of light so accurately. Naturally, something that allows solid bodies to pass through it freely is a little hard to get a grip on. But Michelson realized that, just as the speed of sound is relative to the air, so the speed of light mus...
Explain why Michelson and Morley predicted that the fringes in the interference pattern would shift when the interferometer was rotated 90 degrees. Answer: They predicted the speed of light depended on the motion of the Earth (relative to the aether)
The Michelson–Morley experiment was an attempt to measure the motion of the Earth relative to the luminiferous aether, a supposed medium permeating space that was thought to be the carrier of light waves.
May 9, 2020 · The Michelson-Morley experiment was performed by American scientists Albert Michelson and Edward Morley between April and July 1887. The purpose of this experiment is to prove the existence of ether. This hypothetical medium permeating space was thought to be the carrier of light waves.
Jul 12, 1987 · The Michelson-Morley experiment was remarkable in many ways. Not only did it set the stage for Lorentz, Fitzgerald, Poincare, and finally Einstein to establish the mathematical framework that described the propagation of light through space and time, it also marked a turning point for science in the New World.
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1. INTRODUCTION. shall focus on the question whether we ever need to assume the very theory to be tested or one of its rivals in order to interpret an experi mental result as a test of the theory. In terms of the set of theses being tested, the thesis to be examined is that: The appraisal of a theory is based on phenomena which can be detected ...
