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The Michelson–Morley experiment was an ... (in this case water), ... This diagram illustrates the folded light path used in the Michelson–Morley interferometer ...
The Michelson interferometer (among other interferometer configurations) is employed in many scientific experiments and became well known for its use by Michelson and Edward Morley in the famous Michelson–Morley experiment (1887) [1] in a configuration which would have detected the Earth's motion through the supposed luminiferous aether that ...
Michelson redesigned Fizeau's apparatus with larger diameter tubes and a large reservoir providing three minutes of steady water flow. His common-path interferometer design provided automatic compensation of path length, so that white light fringes were visible at once as soon as the optical elements were aligned.
This means that as the interferometer's arms were spun to face into and against the aether wind, the vertical fringe lines should have moved across the viewer 0.4 fringe widths left and right for a total of 0.8 fringes from maximum to minimum. Michelson reported that only between one-sixth and one-quarter of the expected reading was found. [1]
Figure 1. The light path through a Michelson interferometer.The two light rays with a common source combine at the half-silvered mirror to reach the detector. They may either interfere constructively (strengthening in intensity) if their light waves arrive in phase, or interfere destructively (weakening in intensity) if they arrive out of phase, depending on the exact distances between the ...
Albert Abraham Michelson (surname pronunciation anglicized as Michael-son; December 19, 1852 – May 9, 1931) was an American astronomer and physicist known for his work on measuring the speed of light and especially for the Michelson–Morley experiment.
Edward Williams Morley (January 29, 1838 – February 24, 1923) was an American scientist known for his precise and accurate measurement of the atomic weight of oxygen, and for the Michelson–Morley experiment.
1925 – the Michelson–Gale–Pearson experiment tests the Sagnac effect caused by the Earth’s rotation. The result disproves any aether drag; in combination with other experiments – disproving the stationary aether like the Michelson–Morley experiment – it proves the Lorentz transformations correct.