Einstein Light: Michelson, Morley and the speed of light

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written by Joe Wolfe and George Hatsidimitris

This page features a tutorial on the 1887 Michelson-Morley experiment, one of the most famous null results in history. The purpose of the experiment was to prove the existence of "luminiferous aether", believed at the time to be the medium through which light propagated. Their results provided the first clear demonstration that the aether theory was seriously flawed. More importantly, the results paved the way for special relativity, which established the invariance of the speed of light.

EinsteinLight is an multimedia, non-mathematical introduction to relativity. It covers concepts from Galileo, Newton, and Maxwell through Einstein and special relativity. The main resource is a series of Flash media files with narration and animations.

https://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/jw/module3_is_it_true....

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
General Physics - History Relativity - Special Relativity	- High School - Lower Undergraduate - Informal Education	- Instructional Material = Tutorial - Audio/Visual = Movie/Animation

Intended Users	Formats	Ratings
- Learners - Educators	- text/html - application/flash - image/gif	Currently 0.0/5 Want to rate this material? Login here!

Access Rights:: Free access
Restriction:: © 2005 School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Australia
Keywords:: Ether, Michelson-Morley, behavior of light, historic experiment, light behavior, relative motion, relativity, speed of light
Record Cloner:: Metadata instance created January 7, 2008 by Christopher Bares
Record Updated:: February 22, 2025 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update when Cataloged:: February 12, 2007
Other Collections:: The Physics To Go

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AAAS Benchmark Alignments (2008 Version)

1. The Nature of Science

1A. The Scientific Worldview

6-8: 1A/M2. Scientific knowledge is subject to modification as new information challenges prevailing theories and as a new theory leads to looking at old observations in a new way.
9-12: 1A/H2. From time to time, major shifts occur in the scientific view of how things work. More often, however, the changes that take place in the body of scientific knowledge are small modifications of prior knowledge. Continuity and change are persistent features of science.
9-12: 1A/H3bc. In science, the testing, revising, and occasional discarding of theories, new and old, never ends. This ongoing process leads to a better understanding of how things work in the world but not to absolute truth.

1B. Scientific Inquiry

9-12: 1B/H7. New ideas in science are limited by the context in which they are conceived; are often rejected by the scientific establishment; sometimes spring from unexpected findings; and usually grow slowly, through contributions from many investigators.

4. The Physical Setting

4F. Motion

9-12: 4F/H3c. In empty space, all electromagnetic waves move at the same speed—the "speed of light."

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Record Link

<a href="https://www.compadre.org/portal/items/detail.cfm?ID=6313">Wolfe, Joe, and George Hatsidimitris. Einstein Light: Michelson, Morley and the speed of light. February 12, 2007.</a>

AIP Format

J. Wolfe and G. Hatsidimitris, (2005), WWW Document, (https://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/jw/module3_is_it_true.htm).

AJP/PRST-PER

J. Wolfe and G. Hatsidimitris, Einstein Light: Michelson, Morley and the speed of light (2005), <https://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/jw/module3_is_it_true.htm>.

APA Format

Wolfe, J., & Hatsidimitris, G. (2007, February 12). Einstein Light: Michelson, Morley and the speed of light. Retrieved May 1, 2025, from https://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/jw/module3_is_it_true.htm

Chicago Format

Wolfe, Joe, and George Hatsidimitris. Einstein Light: Michelson, Morley and the speed of light. February 12, 2007. https://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/jw/module3_is_it_true.htm (accessed 1 May 2025).

MLA Format

Wolfe, Joe, and George Hatsidimitris. Einstein Light: Michelson, Morley and the speed of light. 2005. 12 Feb. 2007. 1 May 2025 <https://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/jw/module3_is_it_true.htm>.

BibTeX Export Format

@misc{ Author = "Joe Wolfe and George Hatsidimitris", Title = {Einstein Light: Michelson, Morley and the speed of light}, Volume = {2025}, Number = {1 May 2025}, Month = {February 12, 2007}, Year = {2005} }

Refer Export Format

%A Joe Wolfe %A George Hatsidimitris %T Einstein Light: Michelson, Morley and the speed of light %D February 12, 2007 %U https://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/jw/module3_is_it_true.htm %O text/html

EndNote Export Format

%0 Electronic Source %A Wolfe, Joe %A Hatsidimitris, George %D February 12, 2007 %T Einstein Light: Michelson, Morley and the speed of light %V 2025 %N 1 May 2025 %8 February 12, 2007 %9 text/html %U https://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/jw/module3_is_it_true.htm

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