Asri-unix.500 net.space utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!KLH@MIT-AI Wed Jan 13 21:36:05 1982 Question on Michelson-Morley experiment From: Ken Harrenstien Apologies to those receiving duplicates. I was reading through a friend's pile of old magazines the other day, and came across a curious statement. In the November 1979 issue of ANALOG there is a guest editorial titled "Beyond Relativity" by G. Harry Stine. It is a fairly standard treatise on Einstein, the nature of science, and so forth, at least until page 161. At that point there is a paragraph which made me blink several times: "And, while it is true that Michelson and Morley did not find the expected 60 kilometer per second differential that would have confirmed the existence of the luminiferous ether, THEY DID FIND A DIFFERENCE OF ABOUT 8 KILOMETERS PER SECOND!" (caps are italics in original) There is more following this, to the effect that these results have been duplicated repeatedly, and it seems as if the speed of light is not, in fact, independent of the motion of the observer! Naturally I am very curious to know what more knowledgeable readers might have to say about this, or the article itself if they can find it. Is the quote, for example, a correct statement of fact? Is G. Stine given to wild conjectures or distortions? (Doesn't strike me that way, though.) Considering the desperate search of SF for holes in the lightspeed limit, I'm a little surprised that Analog doesn't seem to have followed up on that in later issues. Perhaps somebody has already explained it away? --Ken ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.