The Michelson-Morley Experiment

Ziyi Lin
1 Introduction
The foundation of the theory of Classical Relativity was set by Galileo in the 17
th
century, in which he established
that the laws of physics are invariant in inertial frames of reference. An inertial frame, is a reference frame where an
arbitrary point in the frame move uniformly with respect to any other points in the frame during a specic period of
time. Galileo also came up with the law of velocity addition, that the velocity of an object in a moving frame is the
velocity of the object observed in the moving frame plus the velocity of the moving frame. He proposed the following
question: if a swimmer with speed c in a stream with current speed u, what would be the time difference between a
upstream-downstream round trip and a round trip vertically across the stream, assuming that the swimmer swim the
same distant? As it turned out, the time for a horizontal round trip with distant L was t
1
=
2L
c

1
u
2
c
2
, and the time
for a vertical round t
2
=
2L
c

1
u
2
c
2
, so the difference would be t
2
t
1
=
2L
c

1
u
2
c
2

2L
c

1
u
2
c
2
.
Figure 1: Michelson-Morley Experiment
It had been long suspected that light, like sound and other waves,
travels in a medium call ether. Attempts had been made to deter-
mine the velocity of the Earth with respect to the ether, which is said
to be stationary. In the late 19
th
century, Albert A. Michelson and
his assistance Edward W. Morley conducted a famous experiment
to detect the ether. Using the principles described in the previous
paragraph, they designed an apparatus with a set of mirrors (Figure
1) mounted on a stone slab oating on a pool of mercury. The light
travels from the light source f to b, where it gets reected by/pass
through the half mirror b, and hit d. Then it gets reected to e, re-
bounces once back to d and gets to the eyepiece a.
One important experiment conducted by Thomas Young called
1
the Youngs Double Slit Experiment is crucial to the understand of the result of the Michelson-Morley Experiment.
Youngs Double Slit Experiment demonstrated the effect of the destructive interference of two light wave out of phase,
that they will form an image with fringes representing the maximas of the resulted wave.
2 Methodology
Using the principles mentioned in paragraph, if ether exist, there will be a difference in time for the light to travel the
de distance, which result in a difference in phase, and a destructive interference if the phase difference is not a whole
period. Would there be a destructive interference, the image observed in a would be a series of fringes instead of a
bright light spot. To eliminate the error caused by the half mirrors b and c, we turn the apparatus 90 degrees, and look
for any shift in the interference fringes when we rotate the apparatus. Denote the distance between d and e as L, the
speed of light c, and the speed of the Earth through ether u, then the problem becomes that of the swimmers.
Let us rst consider the case when the angle is 0 degree:
t
1
=
2L
c

1
u
2
c
2

t
2
=
2L
c

1
u
2
c
2
and the difference T would simple be the difference between them: T =t
2
t
1
=
2L
c

1
u
2
c
2

2L
c

1
u
2
c
2
. Now
if we turn the apparatus 90 degrees, its not hard to see that T

is just negative T since t

1
now becomes t
2
and vise
versa. To see how the interference change during the rotation, we will need the change of time during the maneuver:
T T

=
2L
c

1
u
2
c
2

2L
c

1
u
2
c
2

2L
c

1
u
2
c
2
+
2L
c

1
u
2
c
2

which simplies to
T T

=
2Lu
2
c
3
Now we only need to divide that be the period of light with the wavelength, and we should have the amount of
fringes observed during the rotation.
2
3 Data
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
aa
Speed of ether
Angle of rotation
0 45 90
0 0 0 0
0.5 0 0 1
1 3 0 3
Table 1: This table includes the data collected using the experiment simulation
(http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/more stuff/ashlets/mmexpt6.htm), showing the T T

obtained
when different angles and ether speed is used.
4 Discussion
As demonstrated in the data obtained in the simulated experiment, would there be ether, the experimenter would
observe a time difference of 3 unit when the apparatus is at 0 degree, a time difference of 0 unit when it is at 45
degrees, and a time difference of 3 unit when it is at 90 degrees. Through the eyepiece, the observer would rst see
a double-slit image, with numerous light fringes spread across. Then he or she would see the fringes fading away
as the apparatus turn towards 45 degrees; eventually a single-slit image when the apparatus is at 45 degrees. As the
apparatus turn towards 90 degrees from 45 degrees, the fringes start appearing again; eventually forming a double-slit
image when the apparatus is at 90 degrees.
5 Conclusion
No fringes were observed during the actual experiment conduced by Michelson and Morley, which implies that the
hypothetical ether was in fact non-existent. Scientists at that time was unable to explain this phenomenon; Lorentz and
Fitzgerald explained it as a contraction of the apparatus by the ether as Earth moves through it, that the contraction
made up the difference between T and T

. About thirty years later, Albert Einstein would explain in his Theory of
Relativity that the speed of light in vacuum is constant regardless of the speed of the observer.
3