Michelson-Morley Experiment with explanations

Michelson goes further and speculates on this. There is a medium that supports the propagation of a given disturbance (light, for example). That medium gives another reference frame that exists by itself without any relationship with the observer-bound reference frame. Propagation of disturbance in that medium appears for the observer as some duration of the experiment.

That duration has two elements: the duration of forward propagation (in the AC direction) and the duration of backward propagation (in the CB direction). This happens because the measuring instrument, the observer, and his reference frame also move in the medium during disturbance propagation back and forth. Therefore, the first point of measurement covers distance AB in the medium during disturbance propagation back and forth.

Michelson also speculated on this. It is possible to change the orientation of the measuring instrument. In that case, a given disturbance propagates in another direction regarding the direction of the absolute velocity (AV). As a result, a changed orientation leads to a different round-trip duration of disturbance propagation or to a different duration of the experiment.

The practical problem came from the engineering level of that time. Michelson had no chance to determine the duration of the experiment directly by any “clock.” Such clocks appeared many decades later in the form of atomic clocks. Therefore, Michelson decided to use another device with a similar operation to give him another duration of disturbance propagation by another orientation of that device.

That idea led him to apply his “famous” interferometer. That device has two arms. Both arms use light as a disturbance that propagates in the medium. The light beams coming back after reflection from mirrors form an interference pattern on the screen.

Michelson started his experiments as soon as the device was created in Germany. He used the pattern on the screen to determine the difference in the duration of light propagation in two mutually perpendicular directions. Surprisingly, the device showed no difference regardless of his best efforts. In other words,

That is a critical aspect of experimentation. An experiment should be used to check human apriori points of view and speculations. Any speculation has to be disproved as soon as the experiment shows something else instead of “predictable aspects.” Therefore, the experimental result leads to two possibilities:

Like all other "scientists," Michelson took the first possibility as an explanation for his "failure." As mentioned above, he came to Edward Morley to conduct his experiment together. That action shows that Michelson could not comprehend the result of his experiment himself. He hesitated and needed "support" from another "famous person."

The problem with Michelson's comprehension comes from his blind belief in mathematics. His calculations are based on two cases of measuring instrument orientation: AB orientation, which coincides with the absolute velocity, and another orthogonal orientation (Z1-C1 in the following figure).

Fig. 2. Aurora Ellipsoid in Michelson-Morley Experiment

Such very simplified thoughts and calculations led Michelson to the idea that a round-trip experiment shows a different duration in different orientations of the measuring instrument. However, that point of view is wrong because of device operation, as explained below.

A physical experiment begins at point A (see Fig. 1). All points in that figure belong to the medium that supports disturbance propagation. The measuring signal starts its propagation through the medium in all directions (in the general case).

The signal moves through the medium, and the measuring instrument moves through it. Therefore, both things move through the medium independently of each other. Suppose now this. The measuring instrument keeps its orthogonal orientation relative to the absolute velocity (AV or AB direction). The signal takes some duration to reach another point of measurement (point C of the instrument) at point C1 of the continuum.

The duration of both processes is the same because they start and stop simultaneously. Apparently, the first point of measurement (A) reaches point Z1 at that moment.

Moreover, the observer who moves with the measuring instrument and is located at the first point of measurement during that process reaches point Z1, too, but he has no idea about the interaction between the measuring signal and the other point of measurement at that moment.

In that case, the signal covers the distance A-C1 in the medium, and the first point of measurement covers the distance A-Z1. The critical aspect of that motion comes from the signal because the duration of signal propagation between points A and C1 allows the first point of measurement to cover the distance A-Z1.

Michelson used that case in his calculations and speculations. However, he failed to explain further changes in the reading of the measuring instrument rotating regarding AV.

For example, further clockwise rotation leads to another measurement when the signal covers the distance of A-C2 in its forward propagation and C2-B in its backward propagation. In that case, measurement becomes asymmetric because the distance of forward propagation becomes greater than the distance of backward propagation. As a result, the measuring signal shows an exact propagation duration in each direction. They are not equal to each other. Michelson, as well as any other “great mathematician, " could not calculate that problem because it leads to the following function.

Where D is the duration of one-way measurement, E is the speed of light-to-medium relative motion, V is the speed of the observer-to-medium relative motion, L is the length between points of measurement in the observer-bound reference frame, alpha is the angle between the direction of measurement and the direction of absolute velocity.

Therefore, Michelson had a mathematical problem with an equation of five variables. Only two of them (D and L) were known to him. Mathematically, it is impossible to reach any solution to that problem. As a result, Michelson failed to give a general solution to the problem. Here, the superiority of physics over mathematics appears.

Therefore, a physical experiment shows a round-trip measurement's constant duration and disproves all of Michelson's speculations. That happens because the distance covered by the measuring device (A-Zn) depends on the distance the signal covers, as explained above. Therefore, (A-C1)/(A-Z1) = N. In other words,

Therefore, (A-C1)/(A-Z1) = N = (A-C2)/(A-Z2) = (A-Cn)/(A-Zn) for any one-way measurement.

It confirms the second possibility of explaining the experimental result from the Michelson-Morley experiment. The device shows a correct reading. However, it shows another result of measurements because of the way of operations unknown to Michelson. Therefore, Michelson is wrong in his understanding of the device operation. In other words,

One-way experiments with light (electromagnetic waves) appeared after the invention and physical application of atomic clocks in laboratories (many decades later). Those devices show the Aurora Effect (anisotropy of light propagation regarding the absolute velocity vector). However, those experiments became immediately "forbidden" in modern science because each disproved "well-established theories."