NO SIGN OF ETHER DRIFT: WHY?

Article View: sci.physics.relativity

Article #6145

Back to sci.physics.relativity Previous Next

#6145

From: Pentcho Valev
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 07:13

27 lines
2691 bytes

http://ias.umn.edu/pdf/TimeandRelativity-Pooley.pdf
p. 11: "Problem for Lorentz's theory: no sign of ether drift (= motion
of ether with respect to earth). Many failed attempts to detect ether
drift, one of the most famous ones by Americans Albert A. Michelson
(1852-1931) and Edward W. Morley (1838-1923).
Explanation: compensating effect: length of interferometer arm changes
as it rotates: parallel to ether drift it is shorter than
perpendicular to the ether drift
Contraction (deformation) hypothesis: an object moving with a velocity
v through the ether contracts by a factor (1-v^2 c^2)^(1/2) in the
direction of motion."

Another explanation that essentially could have been advanced by
FitzGerald, Lorentz etc. if they had been less prejudiced in favour of
the ether theory:

http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00001743/02/Norton.pdf
John Norton: "Einstein regarded the Michelson-Morley experiment as
evidence for the principle of relativity, whereas later writers almost
universally use it as support for the light postulate of special
relativity......THE MICHELSON-MORLEY EXPERIMENT IS FULLY COMPATIBLE
WITH AN EMISSION THEORY OF LIGHT THAT CONTRADICTS THE LIGHT
POSTULATE."

Which explanation would have been more correct?

Pentcho Valev

Technical Details

Message-ID: <1194938024.903129.206100@k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com>

Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!g2news1.google.com!postnews.google.com!k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

X-Google-Thread: 10f545,e1ebd9321ee85e88,start
X-Google-Thread: 10b271,e1ebd9321ee85e88,start
X-Google-Thread: f74ae,e1ebd9321ee85e88,start
X-Google-Thread: fa4c1,e1ebd9321ee85e88,start
X-Google-Thread: 1139f8,e1ebd9321ee85e88,start
X-Google-Attributes: gid10f545,gid10b271,gidf74ae,gidfa4c1,gid1139f8,public,usenet
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!g2news1.google.com!postnews.google.com!k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail
From:  Pentcho Valev <pvalev@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups: sci.physics.relativity,sci.physics,sci.astro,fr.sci.physique,fr.sci.maths
Subject: NO SIGN OF ETHER DRIFT: WHY?
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 23:13:44 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Lines: 28
Message-ID: <1194938024.903129.206100@k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 85.91.141.160
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1251"
X-Trace: posting.google.com 1194938025 14245 127.0.0.1 (13 Nov 2007 07:13:45 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 07:13:45 +0000 (UTC)
User-Agent: G2/1.0
X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30),gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe)
Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com
Injection-Info: k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com; posting-host=85.91.141.160;
   posting-account=ps2QrAMAAAA6_jCuRt2JEIpn5Otqf_w0