The Michelson-Morley experiment (fringe shift)
Physics Asked by Eva S on August 14, 2021
What i don’t understand about the experiment is why wasn’t the first calculated path drift $ds$ enough but they had to rotate the expiriment by 90 degrees and calculate $dx= ds- ds’$? (Where the $ds’$ is the second calculated path drift). If there as a difference between the fringes wasn’t the first calculation enought?
One Answer
Yeah, if you know the precise positions of the mirrors (down to <1 micrometer), and you know that the arms are aligned to the ether, then you could measure the effect of the ether in a single measurement.
Unfortunately, Michelson and Morley didn’t have the tech to know the first, and they couldn’t know the second in principle. So they did what’s known as a relative measurement. By subtracting the fringe measurements for the orthogonal orientations, the mirror position error is eliminated, and the effect of the ether (should it exist) is doubled.
Correct answer by Gilbert on August 14, 2021
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