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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. No such velocity was detected, and this result seriously discredited ether theories.
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.
- How It Was Supposed to Work
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By the end of the 1800s, the dominant theory of how light worked was that it was a wave of electromagnetic energy, because of experiments such as Young's double slit experiment. The problem is that a wave had to move through some sort of medium. Something has to be there to do the waving. Light was known to travel through outer space (which scienti...
The result was disappointing because they found absolutely no evidence of the relative motion bias they were looking for. No matter which path the beam took, light seemed to be moving at precisely the same speed. These results were published in 1887. One other way to interpret the results at the time was to assume that the ether was somehow connect...
Find the full text of their paper published in the 1887 edition of the American Journal of Science, archived online at the AIP website.
The measurements in the Michelson-Morley experiment were based on the assumption that an observer at rest in the ether would determine a different speed from an observer moving through the ether. Because Earth’s speed relative to the Sun is about 29,000 metres per second, or about 0.01 percent of the speed of light, Earth provides a ...
May 9, 2020 · About 150 years ago, physicists believed that light waves require a medium to pass through. 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.
Michelson Morley Experiment. The Michelson Morley Experiment was one of the failed experiments that stands as proof against the existence of the luminiferous ether concept. Michelson and Morley tried to explain that Earth moved around the sun on its orbit, and the flow of substances like ether across the Earth’s surface could produce a ...
First off, the Michelson-Morley experiment ran in 1887. It did find a small positive effect (not the null or zero effect often mentioned) Second, between 1906 and mid-1930s, Dayton Miller ran a series of experiments that did find solid positive results for ether 'wind.'
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