michelson morley's experiment (1 Viewer)

[martin310015]

can someone explain what is michelson morley's experiment is because i don't really get what it is used for and what we really have to know about it thanx

 

[zeropoint]

What precisely are you having difficulty with? Has your teacher covered it in class? Basically, a beam of light was split into two perpendicular beams which were reflected back by mirrors placed equidistant from the beam splitter. Michelson and Morley attempted to observe interference fringes between the light which had passed in the direction of the hypothetical aether wind and the light perpendicular to this. No discernible difference in velocity was found, indicating that the aether was non-existant.

 

[martin310015]

thanx

 

[Ragerunner]

Originally posted by star
what's the difference between using a telescope and an infernometer ?

huh? Those are 2 totally different things.

I assume your referring to an interferometer, instead of your typo (infernometer).

An interferometer is used to observe interference patterns. Which was the primary effect of the aether model.

A telescope is used for looking at star/planets?

 

[edd91]

Originally posted by zeropoint
indicating that the aether was non-existant.

actually, it indicated the accepted model for the aether was incorrect

 

[Rorix]

Yes, it failed to prove the aether existed, but it didn't disprove the aether

 

[fashionista]

ok so the beam of light which travelled in the direction of the aether wind was hypothetically supposed to reach the telescope before the beam travelling perp. to the aether wind.....so if this occured the two beams wud interfere with each other destructively. but they didnt which suggestedd that there actually was no aether and consequential aether wind..have i got it? am i smart??? ummmm may i ask a kwestion pweeesee??
y did michelson and morley conduct the experiment so many times but each time the just rotated the setup like 45 or 90 degrees or sumthing??

 

[Constip8edSkunk]

they believed that there will be both constructive and destructive interference, creating an interference pattern, and from this they can work out the speed of light relative to an absolute frame(of the aether). it is hypothesized that the pattern would change if the entire apparatus is rotated, ie by 45 or 90 degrees, as the motion of light relative to the supposed aether wind varies. however this did not occur, no matter how many repetitions and conditions, hence leading to einsteins explaination that the aether is not required and that there are no absolute frame (speed of light is constant to all frames of reference)

 

[fashionista]

ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......thank u!

 

[ZoDiAc KnIgHt]

SOOOOO...The aim of the experiment was to find the velocity of the aether "wind"?
how did they do that??? Because doesn't the interferometer just show there is an interference therefore just a change in velocity??? (assuming the aether was detectable)
i am quite lost...plz help

 

[Ragerunner]

Velocity of the Earth relative to the aether.

 

[KeypadSDM]

Originally posted by ZoDiAc KnIgHt
how did they do that??? Because doesn't the interferometer just show there is an interference therefore just a change in velocity??? (assuming the aether was detectable)
i am quite lost...plz help

Lucky for you, the how is unnececary for us (High school physics students doing the HSC) to know. But, it was designed to get it very very accurately. Anyone know the exact statistic?

The difference in interference patterns provided enough information to calculate both the direction and speed (hence velocity) of the earth through the aether. That's basically all you need to say.

 

[ZoDiAc KnIgHt]

*phew*
cool

THANK YOU

 

[:: ck ::]

erm wheres the interferometer

is it spose to be the telescope?

 

[Rahul]

hahah why the telescope...were they doing the experiments from mars, earth and using the suns rays?
has to be a typo...

 

[Constip8edSkunk]

maybe not a telescope but a scope through which one may observe the interference pattern

 

[Dash]

Originally posted by Rahul
hahah why the telescope...were they doing the experiments from mars, earth and using the suns rays?
has to be a typo...

stop bein so picky

 

[wildtiger]

Originally posted by :: ryan.cck ::
erm wheres the interferometer

is it spose to be the telescope?

isnt the interferometer just basically the apparatus used by michelson-morley... it attempts to find the interference patterns


how do we pronounce michelson? is it "mikkleson" or "my-kleson"?

and is aether pronounced "air-ther" or "eee-ther"?

 

[Ragerunner]

I think it's

"Mikkleson" and "eee-ther"

 

[:: ck ::]

isnt the interferometer just basically the apparatus used by michelson-morley... it attempts to find the interference patterns

then where's it labelled then