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Luminiferous aether or ether [1] (luminiferous meaning 'light-bearing') was the postulated medium for the propagation of light. [2] It was invoked to explain the ability of the apparently wave -based light to propagate through empty space (a vacuum ), something that waves should not be able to do.
The famous Michelson–Morley experiment of 1887 showed that the then-accepted aether theory needed to be modified. FitzGerald and Lorentz, independently of each other, proposed a length contraction of the experimental apparatus in the direction of motion (with respect to the luminiferous aether) that would explain the almost null result of the Michelson–Morley experiment.
According to Voigt's first judgment, the Michelson experiment must yield a null result, independently of whether the Earth transports the luminiferous aether with it (Fizeau's 1st aether hypothesis), or whether the Earth moves through an entirely independent, self-consistent universal luminiferous aether (Fizeau's 2nd aether hypothesis).
Luminiferous aether or ether ("luminiferous", meaning "light-bearing"), was the postulated medium for the propagation of light. It was invoked to explain the ability of the apparently wave-based light to propagate through empty space, something that waves should not be able to do. The assumption of a spatial plenum of luminiferous aether ...
The timeline of luminiferous aether (light-bearing aether) or ether as a medium for propagating electromagnetic radiation begins in the 18th century. The aether was assumed to exist for much of the 19th century—until the Michelson–Morley experiment returned its famous null result.
"The demonstration of the luminiferous aether by an interferometer in uniform rotation" . Comptes Rendus. 157: 708–710. Sagnac, Georges (1913). "On the proof of the reality of the luminiferous aether by the experiment with a rotating interferometer" . Comptes Rendus. 157: 1410–1413.
Following Thomas Young’s ideas, light was regarded in the 19th century to move as vibrations (undulations) in a substance called the Luminiferous aether, contrary to Newton’s ideas that light itself was made of substantive corpuscles. Exploring the nature of this aether, Albert Michelson published in 1881 his laboratory experiments where he ...
In theories that presume that light travels at a fixed speed relative to an unmodifiable and detectable luminiferous aether, a preferred frame would be a frame in which this aether would be stationary. In 1887, Michelson and Morley tried to identify the state of motion of the aether. To do so, they assumed Galilean relativity to be satisfied by ...