Significance of Michelson-Morley experiment (1 Viewer)

[Jago]

What exactly is the significance of this experiment?

I know it forced physicists to think about light in another direction and paved way for special relativity prosed by Einstein but is there any other significance?

 

[xiao1985]

that the aether model which was thought to be right at the time was wrong...

 

[Jago]

was there anything else?

 

[tennille]

Not really. That's about it. Just look at hsc.csu.edu.au and other physics textbooks for an elaboration on each of those points metioned.

 

[Templar]

was there anything else?

From that Einstein did deduce that light travels at the same speed c to all observers in inertial reference frames.

 

[Jago]

okay thanks everyone


<3

 

[gordo]

how come xayma didn't pounce on this question

 

[Xayma]

how come xayma didn't pounce on this question

I don't have to pounce on every question.

But it didn't show that the aether was wrong. Merely that they got a null result.

From this they deduced that maybe length contracts in the direction of the aether wind. A large body such as the Earth drags the aether with it (which would have disrupted the viewing of stars so it couldn't occur).

It wasn't until Maxwell and his theories of electromagnetism, that the aether model was finally dispensed of. Although Einsteins thought experiements showed it was not needed it didn't explain the propagation of light waves.