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The Michelson–Morley experiment was an attempt to measure the motion of the Earth relative to the luminiferous aether, [A 1] ... Michelson and Morley's results. The ...
The results of the Michelson–Morley experiments supported Albert Einstein's strong postulate in 1905 that the speed of light is a constant in all inertial frames of reference for his Special Theory of Relativity. [2] Morley also collaborated with Dayton Miller on positive aether experiments after his work with Michelson. [2]
In addition, the negative result of the Michelson–Morley experiment led to the introduction of the hypothesis of length contraction in 1892. However, other experiments also produced negative results and (guided by Henri Poincaré 's principle of relativity ) Lorentz tried in 1899 and 1904 to expand his theory to all orders in v / c by ...
Of particular interest was the possibility of "aether entrainment" or "aether drag", which would lower the magnitude of the measurement, perhaps enough to explain the results of the Michelson–Morley experiment. However, as noted earlier, aether dragging already had problems of its own, notably aberration.
Albert Abraham Michelson (surname pronunciation anglicized as Michael-son; December 19, 1852 – May 9, 1931) was an American physicist known for his work on measuring the speed of light and especially for the Michelson–Morley experiment.
1932 – Kennedy–Thorndike experiment confirms the Lorentz transformations in a new way, complementary to the Michelson–Morley experiment. [31] These two results, if combined, prove some form of time dilation. 1932 – John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton prove the mass–energy equivalence via a nuclear reaction. 1933 – Dayton Miller ...
The aether was assumed to exist for much of the 19th century—until the Michelson–Morley experiment returned its famous null result. Further experiments were in general agreement with Michelson and Morley's result. By the 1920s, most scientists rejected the aether's existence.
The Michelson-Morley experiment shows on the contrary that a hypothetical aether could not be moving relative to the Earth, that is, as the Earth orbits it would have to drag the aether along. Those two results are not incompatible per se, but in the absence of a model to reconcile them, they are more ad hoc than the explanation of both ...