Abstract
THE epoch-making work of Prof. Dayton C. Miller, as reported two years ago in NATURE1, has established that the small effect found by Michelson and Morley is a reality. In a paper read by me before the American Physical Society which has as yet only appeared in abstract form2, it is shown that there is a v2/c2 effect in both arms of the interferometer (also shown by Voigt3 in 1887). If, however, the ray of light is not perfectly normal to the end mirror, the ray is displaced during the motion and this displacement gives rise to a small effect (about one four-thousandth of v2/c2 in Miller's case—due to the ray having an angle of obliquity of about 1). I find on applying my formula to his results, a value for the cosmic motion of 300 km./sec., while his method of computing the effect gives 200 km./sec. The discrepancy between these results was traced to his floating apparatus being unbalanced, causing the interferometer to be very slightly out of level. Secondary effects due to this slight unbalance may be seen in his results, as well as the effect due to the obliquity of the ray, and it has been found, by inclining one arm of the interferometer while the other remains level, that a very large displacement of the fringes may be produced, since it is the component of the cosmic velocity in each arm which affects the ray in that arm.
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References
Miller, Dayton C., NATURE, 133, 162 (1934).
Cartmel, W. B., Phys. Rev., 2, 49, 647, 649 (1936).
Voigt, W., Goettinger Nach., 1–21, 233 (1887).
Voigt, W., Goettinger Nach., 1–21, 41 (1887).
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CARTMEL, W. A Simple Means of Checking the Michelson-Morley Experiment. Nature 139, 110 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139110a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139110a0
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