No, 208. Vor. XXXIV. NOVEMBER, 1887. ‘Established by BENJAMIN SILLIMAN in 1818. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. EDITORS JAMES D. axp EDWARD S. DANA. Paoressous ASA GRAY, JOSIAH P, COOKE, axp JOHN TROWBRIDGE, or Cansnivsz, Paorussoxs H. A. NEWTON axo A. E. VERRILL, or Naw Havex, Paorssson GEORGE F, BARKER, or Purtapsiruna, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XXXIV.—[WHOLE NUMBER, OXXXIV.) No. 203—NOVEMBER, 1887. NEW HAVEN, CONN.: J. D. & B, 8, DANA. 1887. rurtus, wonsoveE ‘x dolare (portage prepaid) $8.40 to foreign subscribers of counsloe ‘he Focal Olina Ranintseer should be sade set by money orders, rogicuncd liters or bank checks. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. [THIRD SERIES.] Ant. XXXVIL—On the Relative Motion of the Barth and the Luminiferous Elher; by Auwext A. MICHELSON and Eowarp W. Motry.* ‘Tae discovery of the aberration of light was soon followed by an explanation according to the emission theory. ‘The effet was attributed to a simple composition of the velocity of light wrth the velocity of the earth fn ita orbit "The difficulties in this apparently sufficient explanation were overlooked until after an explanation on the undulatory theory of light. was pro} hia new explanation was at first almost as simple former. But it failed to account for the fact proved by experiment that the aberration wad unchanged when observa: tions were made with a telescope filled with wator. For if the tangent of the angle of aberration is the ratio of the velocity of the earth to the velocity of light, then, since the latter velocity in water is three-fourths its velocity in vacuam, the aberration observed with a water telescope should be four- thirds of ite true value.t {tay be poloed Ghat most writers adn tho ullsiency of te explanation ‘otoriag’ tthe emianion theory of ight whlle ta fact the aeaty io (eater chan ecording to te undulatory theory, For on the esa theory te ‘slooty of light monte grentor in the water teleicope, and aerators the ange ‘SL ebatratcn should: Ye Gena; bono ardor to redoce Wt steve value, 6 make the absurd hrpothnta thatthe motion ‘of tho alo in te encopa ‘ivae tbe ray of light in tho oppate direction! ‘Ax. Joos. Sot—Muuap Sante, Vor. XXXIV, No, 203.—Nov, 1861.884 Michelson and Morley—Motion of the Earth, ete, On the undulatory theory, according to Fresnel, first, the ether is supposed to be at rest excep: in the interior of transparent ‘modi, in which secondly, it is supposed to move with avelociy Ten than the vl of tho medio in theraio "5, where ‘nis the index of refraction. ‘These two hypotheses give a com. jete and. satisfactory explanation of aberration, ‘The second yypothesis, notwithstanding its seeming improbability, must be considered as fally proved, rst, by the celebrated experiment of Fizeau," and secondly, by the ample confirmation of our own work.t| The experimental trial of the first: hypothesis forms the subject of the preseut paper. Tf the earth were a transparent body, it. might perbay ‘conceded, in view of the experiments just cited, that the inter- molecular ether was at rest in space, notwithstanding the mo- fon of the earth in ita orbit; but Wwe have no right to tend the conclusion from these experiments to opaque bodi But there ean hardly be question that the ether can and does through metals, Lorentz cites the illustention of a metallio srometer tube. When the tube is inclined the ether in the pace above the mercury is certainly forved ont, for it is im- compressible But again wo have no right to aseume that it makes its eseape with perfect freedom, and if there be any ance, however slight, we certainly could not assume an opaque Vody such as the whole earth to offer free passage through its entire mass, But as Lorentz. aptly remarks: “quoi quil en soit, on fera bien, & mon avis, de ne pas se laisser guider, di ‘une guestion aussi importante, par des considérations sur le dogré do probabilité on do simnplicité de Pane ou de Fautre hypothise, mais de s'addresser a Pexpérience pour apprendre & connaitre I’état, de repos oa de moavement, dans lequel #9 trouve Méther d la surface terrestre.”§ To April, 1881, a method was proposed and earried out for testing the question experimentally, In deducing the formula for the quantity the effect of the motion of the earth throug! path of the ray at right angles to this motion was overlooked. 4 Compios Rendon, xxx, 349, 1851; Pogg, Ano. Nrghnzungsband, x, 481, 458; "Aon, Chim Phys HT i 365, 1830 ee: Tatars of Aiton tthe Mao om tho Vast of Light. This Jura ey be jeri ht it ay nape by the etc betwee the merry and tnd wale” pact st be pore by naapnttog ie ae “Srbives Neariandsiny, Sx, 2 * rates op ere hire Abert A Tit maybe menne re the he error man antennae of he forber oper op Me Poker, of Por i tho itor of 108. Michelson and Morloy—Relative Motion of the 386 ‘The discusssion of this oversight aod of the entire experiment forms the subject of a very searching analysis by H. A. Lo- rents," who finds that this effect can by no means be ied. In uence, the quantity to be measured had in fact bat onetalf the value supposed, and as it was already barely be- ‘ond the limits of errors of éxperiment, the conclasion drawn From the result of the experiment might well be questioned ; since, however, the main portion of the theory remains un- questioned, it was decided to repeat the experiment with such SBodiintions a= would insure a theoreeal result mach oo to be masked by experimental errors. ‘The theory of the ekiod may be briefly staied as follows: ‘Let sa, fig. 1, bo a ray of light which is partly reflected in ab, and partly transmitted in ao, being returned by the mir- rors } and ¢, along 6a and ox, ba is parily transmitted along ad, and ca is partly refleoted along ad. If then the paths ab and ac tue equa, the two rays interforo along ad, Sappose now, the ether being at rest, that the whole apparatus moves in the di- ‘rection o, With the velocity of the oarth in ite orbit, the diree- ** Do'ntoence du Mouvement de Ia Torro sur Ios Phan. Lam, Archives Néer- anaes, T= ie 1880.396 Earth and the Luminiferous Biker. tions and distances traversed by the rays will be altered thus:— ‘The ray on is reflected long ah, fig. 2: tho angle ab, bel equal to the aberration =a, is returned along ba,, (aba, =2a), an 08 to the focus of the telescope, whose direction is unaltared. the transmitted ray goes along az is returned along ca, and is, reflected at a,, making ca equal 90—a, and therefore stil oot Slog wh te fry Teay be ered tat he rae ay land ca,,do not now meet exacily in the same point a, thought the difference is of the second order; this does not affect t validity of the reasoning. Let it now be required to find the difference in the two paths aba,, and dea, Let V=velocity of light. v=velocity of the earth in ite orbit, jtanee ab oF ac, fg. 1. ‘P=time light occupies to pass from a toe, T =time light occupies to retarn from e to a, (fg 2.) Then T=y?, Taye, The whole time of going and com- ingis T+T,=2D y¥y, and the distance traveled in this time is Dye a0(14+ 9) neglesting terms of the fourth order. ‘The length of the other path is tied aD 14H Fy OF tothe ‘same degree of accuracy, 20(1+393)- ‘The difference is there- foreD%. If now the whole apparatus be turned through 90%, the difference will be in the opposite direction, henoe the dis- placement of the interference fringes should be 2D. Con sidering only the velocity of the earth in its orbit, this would be 2D%10-*. If, as was the caso in the first experiment, D=2x10" waves of yellow light, the displacement, to bo {Epocted would be OO ofthe distance between the ineferene fringes, Tn the first experiment one of the principal difficulties en- countered was that of revolving the apparatus without produ- Ging distortion ; and another was its extreme sensitiveness to vibration, ‘This was 90 great that it was impossible to see the interference fringes except at brief intervals when workin tbe cig, even ab two oelock in the moraing, Finally, ax fore remarked, the quantity to be observed, namely, a displace- ment of something less than a twentieth’ of the distance be- tmeen the interference fringes may have been too small to be detected when masked by experimental errors. Michelson and Morley—Relative Motion of the 387 ‘The first named difficulties were entirely overeome by mount. ing the apparatas on a massive stone flosting on mercury ; and thesecond by increasing, by repeated reflection, the path of the bout tan tment formor vals "he apparatus in tive in Aig. 8, in plan in fg. 4 and in vertical section in Og, 6. ‘The stone a (ig. Sisuboat 15 thotor square and 0°3 moter thiol. It rats on an aonular ‘wooden float. 4), 1°5 meter outside diameter, 07 meter inside diameter, and 0:25 meter thick. The float’rests on mercury ‘contained in the cast-iron trough cc, 1° centimoter thick, and ‘of each dimensions as to leave a clearance of about one centi meter around the Goat, pind guided by arms ggg, Bt nto socket ¢ attached to the float. ‘The pin may be pushed into the socker or be withdrawn, by a lever pivoted at f- ‘This pin Keeps the float concentric with the trough, but. does not bear any part of the weight of the stone. ‘The anvalar iron trough reals on a bed of cement on a low brick pier bailt in the form of a hollow octagon At each corner of the stone were placed four mirrors dd ee fig. 4. Near the center of the stone was a plane-parallel glass 8, ‘These were eo disposed that light trom an argend barner a, passing through a lens, fell on 8 so as to be in. part reflected tod the two pencil followed the path indiated in the figure, ddedif and bd.ed Pf respectively, and were observed by the tele- scope f. Both /-and a revolved with the stone. ‘The mirrors were of apecalam metal carefully worked to optically plane surfaces five centimeters in diameter, and the % ande tvere plane-parallel and of the same thickness, 15 centimeter