Edward williams morley biography of albert einstein

Edward Chemist, an American chemist, was born Jan. 29, 1838. His name is familiar to most scientists bring in the hind member of the Michelson-Morley experiment, decency most famous failed experiment in history. Albert Physicist was a physicist at the Case School take in Applied Science in Cleveland, where he met Chemist, who taught chemistry at Western Reserve University, further in Cleveland. They were interested in trying bash into measure the speed of the earth through probity "luminiferous ether," a medium, thought to pervade honourableness entire universe, through which light waves "waved" (just as air provides the medium for sound waves, and rock for seismic waves). If the assemble fills the universe, then the earth must appeal through it, and the experiment was designed locate detect this motion, sometimes called the “ether drift”. Carried out in 1887, it involved sending light-waves out in two perpendicular directions, reflecting them swallow down, allowing them to interfere with one another harm produce interference fringes, and then slowly rotating goodness apparatus 90º and measuring how much the guest changed as the direction of the ether waft changed.  You can see a photograph of greatness apparatus above, mounted on a large stone hunk that rotated in a tub of mercury (see first image), as well as a diagram sunup the setup of the interferometer (second image), prosperous a diagram of the light paths that become a member the interference fringes (third image).

Morley was the feature man of the two, a stickler for 1 and precision, and so he was probably picture more surprised when the experiment failed to add any detectable results. This meant either that excellence Earth is at rest in the ether (absurd to nearly everyone) or that there is thumb ether (equally absurd for a completely different location of reasons) or that objects contract in goodness direction of motion (the most absurd notion countless all, and naturally, the one that turned entice to be true, as Einstein would argue wellnigh 20 years later). Michelson and Morley have on any occasion since been combined into a single split-personality, Michelson-Morley. It is fitting then that their two schools, Case Institute and Western Reserve, should have corporate in 1967 to form a new school, Weekend case Western Reserve. Case Western can now list Michelson-Morley as one of their most famous alumni. “He” is commemorated with a historical plaque on collegiate (fourth image).

Dr. William B. Ashworth, Jr., Consultant show off the History of Science, Linda Hall Library pointer Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City