Re: michelson morley experiment

Pretty nearly equal, though. Although Michelson and Morley used
sodium light for collimating the apparatus, the actual experiment
was performed using white light from an argand burner. The colored
fringes were much easier to visually monitor; on the other hand,
the limited coherence length of white light meant that the path
lengths needed to match within microns. Note in Fig. 4 the piece
of glass "c" used to compensate for the difference in light paths.
http://www.aip.org/history/gap/PDF/michelson.pdf

In an effort to "save" aether theory, of course, various ad hoc
hypotheses were made including the notion that the aether might
be entrained by the moving Earth, or the totally ad hoc Lorentz-
Fitzgerald contraction, later derived by Einstein.

Jerry

No.

Instead it relied on the assumption that there would be a significant
change - which turned out to be absent.

It demonstrated the constrancy of the measured return speed of light, thus
disproving Maxwell's ether theory.

I don't know it; at first sight it certainly doesn't look credible .

You're welcome.

Hi

In the MM experiment, was the length of the two light paths set
exactly equal.  If so, how was this done?  If not, did the experiment
"rely" on the fact that there was no change in the interference
fringes when the apparatus was rotated?

Did the MM experiment demonstrate anything about the constancy of the
speed of light or did it merely "disprove" the aether theory?

Does this website have any credibility in mainstream physics?
http://home.iprimus.com.au/longhair1/page1.html

Thanks.