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. The scientists used a large spectrometer to compare a light source with itself after being sent in different directions. They hypothesized that the aether would act as a special coordinate system -- light traveling along with the motion of the Earth would have a different speed than light traveling backward because of a drift effect caused by "aether wind". 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.

This web site is a multimedia, non-mathematical introduction to relativity. It covers concepts from Galileo, Newton, and Maxwell through Einstein and special relativity.

Editor's Note: At the time, the aether wind theory was widely accepted by scientists throughout the world. After the Michelson-Morley experiment, scientists scrambled to conduct new experiments to save the theory. All returned null results as well. For the high school classroom, this experiment could be an effective springboard to discuss the nature of scientific inquiry, and the difficulties arising when established ideas are found erroneous.

http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/jw/module3_is_it_true.h...

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

Appropriate Courses	Categories	Ratings
- Conceptual Physics - Algebra-based Physics - AP Physics	- Activity - New teachers	Currently 0.0/5 Want to rate this material? Login here!

Intended Users:: Learner
Educator
Formats:: text/html
application/flash
image/gif
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:: August 16, 2016 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/precollege/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, (http://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), <http://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 December 14, 2024, from http://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. http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/jw/module3_is_it_true.htm (accessed 14 December 2024).

MLA Format

Wolfe, Joe, and George Hatsidimitris. Einstein Light: Michelson, Morley and the speed of light. 2005. 12 Feb. 2007. 14 Dec. 2024 <http://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 = {2024}, Number = {14 December 2024}, 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 http://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 2024 %N 14 December 2024 %8 February 12, 2007 %9 text/html %U http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/jw/module3_is_it_true.htm

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