The Michelson-Morley Experiment

Abstract

THE Michelson-Morley experiment looked for a shift of well-known interference-bands, about the formation of which there was no doubt or controversy. Ordinary wave theory explains the appearance of these bands with ease. Dr. Daniell, however, claims that no bands would or ought to appear unless the instrument was in motion, and that the width of the bands is itself an indication of the rapidity of motion, which is thereby proven to have a high value. This view is so hopelessly unorthodox that it is difficult to regard it with equanimity. Probably he is attending to one single precise ray—whatever that may be—and not to a small portion of a wave-front, with its inevitable slight obliquities.