The Ethereal Aether: A History of the Michelson-Morley-Miller Aether-drift Experiments, 1880-1930University of Texas Press, 28. ágú. 2013 - 396 síður The Ethereal Aether is a historical narrative of one of the great experiments in modern physical science. The fame of the 1887 Michelson-Morley aether-drift test on the relative motion of the earth and the luminiferous aether derives largely from the role it is popularly supposed to have played in the origins, and later in the justification, of Albert Einstein’s first theory of relativity; its importance is its own. As a case history of the intermittent performance of an experiment in physical optics from 1880 to 1930 and of the men whose work it was, this study describes chronologically the conception, experimental design, first trials, repetitions, influence on physical theory, and eventual climax of the optical experiment. Michelson, Morley, and their colleague Miller were the prime actors in this half-century drama of confrontation between experimental and theoretical physics. The issue concerned the relative motion of “Spaceship Earth” and the Universe, as measured against the background of a luminiferous medium supposedly filling all interstellar space. At stake, it seemed, were the phenomena of astronomical aberration, the wave theory of light, and the Newtonian concepts of absolute space and time. James Clerk Maxwell’s suggestion for a test of his electromagnetic theory was translated by Michelson into an experimental design in 1881, redesigned and reaffirmed as a null result with Morley in 1887, thereafter modified and partially repeated by Morley and Miller, finally completed in 1926 by Miller alone, then by Michelson’s team again in the late 1920s. Meanwhile Helmholtz, Kelvin, Rayleigh, FitzGerald, Lodge, Larmor, Lorentz, and Poincaré—most of the great names in theoretical physics at the turn of the twentieth century—had wrestled with the anomaly presented by Michelson’s experiment. As the relativity and quantum theories matured, wave-particle duality was accepted by a new generation of physicists. The aether-drift tests disproved the old and verified the new theories of light and electromagnetism. By 1930 they seemed to explain Einstein, relativity, and space-time. But in historical fact, the aether died only with its believers. |
From inside the book
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... nature'sdislike that which many Europeansmost abhorred, the vacuum. From Empedocles andAristotle through Descartes and Newton toMaxwell andLodge, the ageold concept ofa plenum oran aether has givenone solution tothehoary philosophical ...
... natural philosophy. Thus myframeof reference, if specified in four dimensions, could besaidto be anchored in history with threecoordinates and fastened to physicswithafourth. Physics isnot thewhole of science, of course, but itisnear ...
... nature upholdand encompass the bodyof organized knowledge known as physics. Among its practitioners, however, somuch more is knownindetail byspecialists that no onecanclaim ingoodconscience tobe a scientistin general oreven a ...
... nature,the eighteenth centuryan era of thecorpuscularian theory oflight, and the nineteenth century anera dominatedby the undulatory orwave theory of light.2 Becausethetwentieth century isso deeplyimbued with photon theoryandthe notion ...
... nature's secrets about light. Michelson was small in stature, meticulous in his dressand demeanor,and careful in his choiceoffriends and associates, but hewas notan inspirational teacheror a prolific writerora good theoretician. His ...
Efni
Dramatis Personae of Aether Drift | |
Michelson and Interferometry 18801883 | |
The Classic Experiments 18841890 | |
Contradictionsand Contractions 18901900 The | |
TheRelative Motionofthe Earth andthe | |
Influence of Motionof the Mediumon the Velocity | |
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The Ethereal Aether: A History of the Michelson-Morley-Miller Aether-drift ... Loyd S. Swenson, Jr. Takmarkað sýnishorn - 2012 |
The Ethereal Aether. A History of the Michelson-Morley-Miller Aether-drift ... Loyd S. Jr Swenson Engin sýnishorn í boði - 1972 |