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1 vote
1 answer
104 views

Understanding the math of the Michelson-Morley experiment

I'm having some conceptual misunderstandings of the Michelson-Morley experiment. The time for the beam going perpendicular ($t_{across}$) of the aether wind I am getting: $$(ct)^{2}=d^{2}+(vt)^{2}\\ (...
Qubit's user avatar
  • 431
7 votes
1 answer
3k views

Why didn't Michelson and Morley assume or conclude that aether is homogenous and permeate all of space?

In the Michelson-Morley experiment, why didn't they assume or conclude that ether is homogeneous and permeate all of space instead of coming from an unspecified source or direction dubbed the ether ...
user6760's user avatar
  • 13k
4 votes
4 answers
632 views

Speed of light in Michelson-Morley experiment

The (failed) goal of the Michelson-Morley experiment was to detect the motion of the Earth with respect to the hypothetical ether. As far as I understand (e.g. from the exposition in Feynman’s ...
MKO's user avatar
  • 2,226
-4 votes
1 answer
109 views

What would happen if the aether did exist and there was no such thing as relativity? [closed]

I'm curious as to the purpose of relativity and why the universe would function this way as opposed to a universe with an aether. So what would be different if we had an aether?
Shannon T's user avatar
  • 361
0 votes
1 answer
89 views

All Michelson-Morley experiments have only been done in non-inertial conditions. Does special relativity apply or not?

As far as I know not a single Michelson-Morley experiment has been done in non-inertial conditions. Shouldn't it be general relativity that applies to Michelson-Morley experiments done so far?
mmx_in_orbit's user avatar
-4 votes
1 answer
86 views

Help with understanding Einstein's thought experiment of the train [closed]

My understanding is that Einstein claimed that the aether model of light is inconsistent with the principle of relativity (that you cannot tell the difference between constant velocity and being ...
DM Miller's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
170 views

Why does light (supposedly) move diagonally in Michelson-Morley Experiment? [closed]

(Im specifically referring to this video at 12:30) In Michelson-Morley experiment, one light beam goes perpendicular to the velocity of earth, and other goes parallel to the velocity of earth. Im ...
Rohit Shekhawat's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
180 views

What impetus would Einstein have had to believe the speed of light, of all things, should remain constant for all reference frames? [duplicate]

If I was in the 1900's, and had to choose between something as "obvious" as time and space behaving "normally" The speed of light staying constant in all reference frames I ...
chausies's user avatar
  • 1,090
0 votes
3 answers
343 views

Explanation for invariance of $c$ / Lorentz transformations? [closed]

First of all, I want to make it clear that I'm not proposing here that I have "discovered" something(I'm just trying to save myself here from accusations about being a relativity denier or ...
Michael Mitsopoulos's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
251 views

Why does the universality of the speed of light prove there is no ether?

So I definitely don’t think there is an ether for starters. I am reading electrodynamics by Griffith and he states that Einstein’s second postulate which says “The speed of light in vacuum is the same ...
JosephSanders's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
138 views

Propagation of gravitational waves

The mechanical waves requires medium to travel . The electromagnetic waves can travel without matter medium with the help of fields . But how do other types of waves , that don't come in either ...
Abbas's user avatar
  • 239
-7 votes
2 answers
261 views

Is Michelson-Morley experiment useless? [closed]

Do you agree that any experiment with two-way there-and-back journeys will never show any discrepancy? Aren't all differences going to be counterbalanced, levelled in the journey back?.
user157860's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
137 views

${}$ Regarding Michelson-Morley Experiment [closed]

Why the Michelson-Morley experiment was rotated by 90 degree. $$Δt = (2/c)(l1-l2) + (2v²/c³)(l1-{l2/2})$$ The above expression is the time difference before the rotation. Then why there is the need of ...
Amrit Sagar Kar's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
322 views

What is the correct explanation of the null result of Michelson-Morley experiment?

Does the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment rule out the existence of the ether medium? My understanding is that if instead of Galilean transformation, we use Lorentz transformation (i.e. ...
Solidification's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
959 views

How is matter different from space?

Scientists used to think that light requires a medium to travel, and it is aether. Then they conclude that there's no aether. Later quantum physics found that space is not empty, it's a thing. (i.e. ...
Yuht.D's user avatar
  • 31

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