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Albert A. Michelson

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Albert A. Michelson
Michelson in 1907 (photograph ofNobel laureate)
Born(1852-12-19)December 19, 1852
Strelno,Kingdom of Prussia,German Confederation
DiedMay 9, 1931(1931-05-09)(aged 78)
Pasadena, California,U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUnited States Naval Academy
University of Berlin
Known forSpeed of light
Hyperfine structure
Fine structure
Michelson–Morley experiment
Michelson–Gale–Pearson experiment
Michelson interferometer
Michelson stellar interferometer
Spouses
Margaret Hemingway
​
​
(m.1877;div.1898)​
;3 children
Edna Stanton
​
(m.1899)​
;3 children
Military career
AllegianceUnited States
Branch
[2]
Service years1873–1881; 1918–1921[2]
RankCommander
UnitUnited States Naval Academy
AwardsMatteucci Medal(1903)
Nobel Prize in Physics(1907)
Copley Medal(1907)
Elliott Cresson Medal(1912)
Henry Draper Medal(1916)
Albert Medal(1920)
Franklin Medal(1923)
Duddell Medal and Prize(1929)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
InstitutionsCase Western Reserve University
Clark University
University of Chicago
Doctoral advisorHermann von Helmholtz
Other academic advisorsGeorg Hermann Quincke[1]
Alfred Cornu[1]
Doctoral students
Signature

Albert Abraham MichelsonFFRSFRSE(surname pronunciation anglicized as "Michael-son", December 19, 1852 – May 9, 1931) was a Prussian-born Americanphysicistof Jewish descent, known for his work on measuring thespeed of lightand especially for theMichelson–Morley experiment.In 1907 he received theNobel Prize in Physics,becoming the first American to win the Nobel Prize in a science. He was the founder and the first head of the physics departments ofCase School of Applied Science(nowCase Western Reserve University) and theUniversity of Chicago.[3][4][5]

Life

[edit]

Michelson was born inStrelno,Posen,Kingdom of Prussia(modern-day Strzelno, Poland), to Jewish parents,[6]the son of Samuel Michelson[7]and his wife, Rozalia Przyłubska.[8]He moved to the US with his parents in 1855, at the age of two. He grew up in the mining towns ofMurphy's Camp,California, andVirginia City, Nevada,where his father was a merchant. His family was non-religious, and Michelson himself was a lifelongagnostic.[9][10][11]He spent his high school years in San Francisco in the home of his aunt, Henriette Levy (née Michelson), who was the mother of authorHarriet Lane Levy.[12] His sister was the novelistMiriam Michelson.

PresidentUlysses S. Grantawarded Michelson a special appointment to theU.S. Naval Academyin 1869.[13]During his four years as amidshipmanat the Academy, Michelson excelled inoptics,heat,climatologyandtechnical drawing.After graduating in 1873 and two years at sea, he returned to the Naval Academy in 1875 to become an instructor inphysicsandchemistryuntil 1879. In 1879, he was posted to the Nautical Almanac Office, Washington (part of theUnited States Naval Observatory),[14][15][16]to work withSimon Newcomb.In the following year he obtained leave of absence to continue his studies in Europe. He visited the Universities ofBerlinandHeidelberg,and theCollège de FranceandÉcole Polytechniquein Paris.

Michelson was fascinated with the sciences, and the problem of measuring thespeed of lightin particular. While atAnnapolis,he conducted his firstexperimentson thespeed of light,as part of a class demonstration in 1877. His Annapolis experiment was refined, and in 1879,[17]he measured the speed of light in air to be299864±51kilometres per second, and estimated the speed of light in vacuum as299940km/s,or186380mi/s.[18][19][20]After two years of studies in Europe, he resigned from theNavyin 1881. In 1883 he accepted a position as professor of physics at theCase School of Applied ScienceinCleveland,Ohio, and concentrated on developing an improvedinterferometer.In 1887 he andEdward Morleycarried out the famousMichelson–Morley experimentwhich failed to detect evidence of the existence of theluminiferous ether.He later moved on to useastronomical interferometersin the measurement of stellar diameters and in measuring the separations of binary stars.

In 1889 Michelson became a professor atClark UniversityatWorcester,Massachusetts,and in 1892 was appointed professor and the first head of the department of physics at the newly organizedUniversity of Chicago.In 1902, he was elected as a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.[21]

In 1907, Michelson had the honor of being the first American to receive aNobel Prize in Physics"for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid". He also won theCopley Medalin 1907, theHenry Draper Medalin 1916 and theGold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Societyin 1923. Acrateron theMoonis named after him.[citation needed]

He returned to military service in the closing months ofWorld War Oneas aLieutenant Commanderin theNaval Reserve,serving in theBureau of Ordnance.He was promoted toCommanderin the reserve in May 1919 and was recalled briefly to active duty in the9th Naval Districtbefore being released from service on 30 September 1921.[2]

Michelson died inPasadena, California,at the age of 78.[22]The University of Chicago Residence Halls remembered Michelson and his achievements by dedicating 'Michelson House' in his honor. Case Western Reserve has dedicated a Michelson House to him, and Michelson Hall (an academic building of science classrooms, laboratories and offices) at theUnited States Naval Academyalso bears his name. Michelson Laboratory atNaval Air Weapons Station China Lakein Ridgecrest, California, is named for him. There is a display in the publicly accessible area of the Lab which includes facsimiles of Michelson's Nobel Prize medal, the prize document, and examples of his diffraction gratings. In 2017, a newly renovated physics research center at the University of Chicago was renamed in honor of Michelson as well.[23]

Numerous awards, lectures, and honors have been created in Albert A. Michelson's name.[24]Some of the current awards and lectures named for Michelson include the following: the Bomem-Michelson Award and Lecture annually presented until 2017 by the Coblentz Society;[25]theMichelson–Morley Awardand Lecture, along with the Michelson Lecture Series,[26]and the Michelson Postdoctoral Prize Lectureship,[27]all of which are given annually byCase Western Reserve University;the A.A. Michelson Award presented every year by theComputer Measurement Group;[28]the Albert A. Michelson Award given by theNavy League of the United States;[29]and the Michelson Memorial Lecture Series[30]presented annually by the Division of Mathematics and Science at theU.S. Naval Academy.

Family

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In 1877 Michelson married Margaret Hemingway, daughter of a wealthy New York stockbroker and lawyer and the niece of his commanderWilliam T. Sampson.They had two sons and a daughter.[31][32]

In 1899, he married Edna Stanton. They raised three daughters.[32]

He is a great uncle of physicistPeter Michelson.[33]

Speed of light

[edit]
Page one of Michelson'sExperimental Determination of the Velocity of Light
Concluding page of Michelson'sExperimental Determination of the Velocity of Light

Early measurements

[edit]

Michelson was fascinated by light all his life. Once asked why he studied light, he reputedly said, "because it's so much fun".[34]

As early as 1869, while serving as an officer in theUnited States Navy,Michelson started planning a repeat of the rotating-mirror method ofLéon Foucaultfor measuring the speed of light, using improved optics and a longer baseline. He conducted some preliminary measurements using largely improvised equipment in 1878, about the same time that his work came to the attention ofSimon Newcomb,director of the Nautical Almanac Office who was already advanced in planning his own study.

Michelson's formal experiments took place in June and July 1879. He constructed a frame building along the north sea wall of the Naval Academy to house the machinery.[35]Michelson published his result of 299,910 ± 50 km/s in 1879 before joiningNewcombin Washington DC to assist with his measurements there. Thus began a long professional collaboration and friendship between the two.

Simon Newcomb,with his more adequately funded project, obtained a value of 299,860 ± 30 km/s, just at the extreme edge of consistency with Michelson's. Michelson continued to "refine" his method and in 1883 published a measurement of 299,853 ± 60 km/s, rather closer to that of his mentor.

Lt. Cmdr.Albert A. Michelson while serving in theU.S. Navy.He rejoined the U.S. Navy in World War I,[36]when this portrait was taken.

Mount Wilson and Lookout Mountain

[edit]

In 1906, a novel electrical method was used byE. B. Rosaand theNational Bureau of Standardsto obtain a value for thespeed of lightof 299,781 ± 10 km/s. Though this result has subsequently been shown to be severely biased by the poor electrical standards in use at the time, it seems to have set a fashion for rather lower measured values.

From 1920, Michelson started planning a definitive measurement from theMount Wilson Observatory,using a baseline toLookout Mountain,a prominent bump on the south ridge ofMount San Antonio( "Old Baldy" ), some 22 miles distant.

In 1922, theUnited States Coast and Geodetic Surveybegan two years of painstaking measurement of the baseline using the recently availableinvartapes. With the baseline length established in 1924, measurements were carried out over the next two years to obtain the published value of 299,796 ± 4 km/s.[37]

Famous as the measurement is, it was beset by problems, not least of which was the haze created by the smoke from forest fires which blurred the mirror image. It is also probable that the intensively detailed work of thegeodetic survey,with an estimated error of less than one part in 1 million, was compromised by a shift in the baseline arising from theSanta Barbara earthquakeof June 29, 1925, which was an estimated magnitude of 6.3 on theRichter scale.

The now-famousMichelson–Morley experimentalso influenced the affirmation attempts of peerAlbert Einstein's theory ofgeneral relativityandspecial relativity,using similar optical instrumentation. These instruments and related collaborations included the participation of fellow physicistsDayton Miller,Hendrik Lorentz,andRobert Shankland.

Autochromeportrait byAuguste Léon,1921

Michelson, Pease, and Pearson

[edit]

The period after 1927 marked the advent of new measurements of the speed of light using novelelectro-opticdevices, all substantially lower than Michelson's 1926 value.

Michelson sought another measurement, but this time in an evacuated tube to avoid difficulties in interpreting the image owing to atmospheric effects. In 1929, he began a collaboration withFrancis G. Peaseand Fred Pearson to perform a measurement in a 1.6 km tube 3 feet in diameter at the Irvine Ranch near Santa Ana, California.[38][39]In multiple reflections the light path was increased to 5 miles. For the first time in history the speed of light was measured in an almost perfect vacuum of 0.5 mm of mercury. Michelson died with only 36 of the 233 measurement series completed and the experiment was subsequently beset by geological instability and condensation problems before the result of299774±11 km/s,consistent with the prevailingelectro-opticvalues, was published posthumously in 1935.[39]

Application of basic statistical principles in Michelson's study of speed of light

[edit]

During June and early July 1879, Michelson refined experimental arrangements from those developed byHippolyte FizeauandLéon Foucault.The experimental setup was as follows: Light generated from a source is directed towards a rotating mirror through a slit on a fixed plate; the rotating mirror reflects the incoming light and at a certain angle, towards the direction where another fixed flat mirror is placed whose surface is perpendicular to the incoming ray of light; the rotating mirror should have rotated by an angleαby the time the ray of light travels back and is reflected again towards the fixed plate (the distance between the fixed mirror and the rotating one is recorded asD); a displacement from the slit is detected on the plate which measuresd;the distance from the rotating mirror to the fixed plate is designated as the radiusrwhile the number of revolutions per second of the mirror is recorded asω.In this way,tan(2α) =d/r;Δt= (α/2π)/ω;speed of light can be derived asc= 2D/Δt.

While at plain sight, four measured quantities are involved: distanceD,radiusr,displacementdand rotating mirror revolution per secondω,which seems simple; yet based on the limitation of the measurement technology at that time, great efforts were made by Michelson to reducesystematic errorsand apply subsequent corrections. For instance, he adopted a steel measuring tape with a said length of 100 feet and he intended to measure tens of times across the distance; still, he measured its length against a copy of the official standard yard to find out it as 100.006 feet, thus eliminating a systematic error, albeit small.

Aside from the efforts to reduce as much as possible the systematic errors, repeated measurements were performed at multiple levels to obtain more accurate results. As R.J. MacKay and R.W. Oldford remarked in their article,[40]'It is clear that Michelson appreciated the power of averaging to reduce variability in measurement', it is clear that Michelson had in mind the property that averages vary less which should be formally described as: the standard deviation of the average ofnindependent random variables is less than that of a single random variable by a factor of the square root ofn.To realize that, he also strived to have each measurement not influencing each other, thus being mutuallyindependent random variables.

Astatistical modelfor repeated measurements with the assumption of independence or identical distributions is unrealistic. In the case of light speed study, each measurement is approached as the sum of quantity of interest and measurement error. In the absence of systematic error, the measurement error of speed of light can be modeled by a random sample from a distribution with unknown expectation and finite variance; thus, the speed of light is represented by the expectation of the model distribution and the ultimate goal is to estimate the expectation of the model distribution on the acquired dataset. The law of large numbers suggests to estimate the expectation by the sample mean.[41]

Michelson–Morley interferometry experiment

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Main article:Michelson–Morley experiment

In 1887 he collaborated with colleagueEdward Williams Morleyof Western Reserve University, now part ofCase Western Reserve University,in theMichelson–Morley experiment.Their experiment for the expected motion of theEarthrelative to theaether,the hypothetical medium in which light was supposed to travel, resulted in anull result.Surprised, Michelson repeated the experiment with greater and greater precision over the next years, but continued to find no ability to measure the aether. The Michelson–Morley results were immensely influential in the physics community, leadingHendrik Lorentzto devise his now-famousLorentz contractionequations as a means of explaining the null result.

There has been some historical controversy over whetherAlbert Einsteinwas aware of the Michelson–Morley results when he developed his theory ofspecial relativity,which pronounced the aether to be "superfluous". In a later interview, Einstein said of the Michelson–Morley experiment, "I was not conscious it had influenced me directly... I guess I just took it for granted that it was true."[42]Regardless of Einstein's specific knowledge, the experiment is today considered the canonical experiment in regards to showing the lack of a detectable aether.[43][44]

The precision of their equipment allowed Michelson and Morley to be the first to get precise values for thefine structurein the atomic spectral lines[45]for which in 1916Arnold Sommerfeldgave a theoretical explanation, introducing thefine-structure constant.

Astronomical interferometry

[edit]

Optical

[edit]
The horizontal structure mounted at the top of theHooker Telescopeimplements Michelson's stellar interferometer (1920). Mirrors on that stage (not visible in picture) redirect starlight from two smaller apertures up to 20 feet (6m) apart into the telescope.

In 1920 Michelson andFrancis G. Peasemade the first measurement of the diameter of a star other than the Sun. Michelson had inventedastronomical interferometryand built such an instrument at theMount Wilson Observatorywhich was used to measure the diameter of thered giantBetelgeuse.A periscope arrangement was used to direct light from two subpupils, separated by up to 20 feet (6m), into the main pupil of the 100 inch (2.5m)Hooker Telescope,producing interference fringes observed through the eyepiece. The measurement of stellar diameters and the separations of binary stars took up an increasing amount of Michelson's life after this.

Beginning in the 1970s, astronomical interferometry was revived, with the configurations using two (or more) separate apertures (with diameters small compared to their separation) being often referred to as "Michelson Stellar Interferometry". This was to distinguish it fromspeckle interferometry,but should not be confused with theMichelson interferometerwhich is one commonlaboratoryinterferometer configuration of which the interferometer used in the Michelson–Morley experiment was an instance. Michelson's concept of interfering light from two relatively small apertures separated by a substantial distance (but with that distance, orbaseline,now often as long as hundreds of meters) is employed atmodern operational observatoriessuch asVLTI,CHARAand the U.S. Navy'sNPOI.

Gravitational wave

[edit]

Gravitational wavesare detected using a Michelson interferometer with a laser light source. In 2020 there were three Michelson interferometer gravitational wave detectors operational, and a fourth under construction. These Michelson interferometers have arms 4 kilometers in length, set at 90 degree angles to each other, with the light passing through 1 m diameter vacuum tubes running their entire length. A passing gravitational wave will slightly stretch one arm as it shortens the other. This is precisely the motion to which these Michelson interferometers are most sensitive. As of 2020 fifteengravitational wave eventshad been observed using these Michelson interferometers.

Harmonic analyzer

[edit]
Main article:Ball-and-disk integrator § Invention and early use

In the 1890s Michelson built a mechanical device called the harmonic analyzer, for computing coefficients ofFourier seriesand drawing graphs of their partial sums. He andS. W. Strattonpublished a paper about this machine in theAmerican Journal of Sciencein 1898.[46][47]

[edit]
"Albert Abraham Michelson was born in this city on December 19, 1852. He was a professor at the University of Chicago, a Nobel laureate, who, with his famous experiments on the speed of light, started a new era in the development of physics. This plaque was placed to celebrate the foundation of great physics." A commemorative plaque inStrzelno,Poland, installed by thePolish Physical Society.

In Season 3 Episode 26 of the television seriesBonanza( "Look to the Stars", broadcast March 18, 1962), Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) helps the 16-year-old Michelson (portrayed by 25-year-old Douglas Lambert (1936–1986)) obtain an appointment to theU.S. Naval Academy,despite the opposition of the bigoted town schoolteacher (played byWilliam Schallert).Bonanzawas set in and aroundVirginia City, Nevada,where Michelson lived with his parents prior to leaving for the Naval Academy. In a voice-over at the end of the episode, Greene mentions Michelson's 1907 Nobel Prize.

The home in which Michelson lived as a child inMurphys Camp, Californiawas in the store of his father, first on Main Street, Murphys, CA across from the Sperry & Perry Hotel and after the 1859 fire, in a store next to the hotel. His aunt Bertha Meyers owned a house on Main Street toward the east end of town and Michelson probably visited her family there frequently.

New Beast Theater Works in collaboration with High Concept Laboratories produced a 'semi-opera' about Michelson, his obsessive working style and its effect on his family life. The production ran from February 11 to February 26, 2011, in Chicago at The Building Stage. Michelson was portrayed byJon Stutzman.The play was directed byDavid Maralwith music composed byJoshua Dumas.[citation needed]

Norman Fitzroy Macleanwrote an essay "Billiards is a Good Game"; published inThe Norman Maclean Reader(ed. O. Alan Weltzien, 2008), it is an appreciation of Michelson from Maclean's vantage point as a graduate student regularly watching him play billiards.[48]

Honors and awards

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A monument atUnited States Naval Academymarks the path of Michelson's experiments measuring the speed of light.

Michelson was a member of theRoyal Society,the National Academy of Sciences, theAmerican Physical Societyand theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science.

TheComputer Measurement Groupgives an annualA. A. Michelson Award.

See also

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Biography

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  • Jaffe, Bernard (1960)Michelson and the Speed of Light,Doubleday. New York

Notes

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  1. ^abLoyd S. Swenson, Jr.,The Ethereal Aether,University of Texas Press, 2013.
  2. ^abc"Michelson".www.history.navy.mil.Archivedfrom the original on July 25, 2021.RetrievedAugust 17,2022.
  3. ^"Albert A. Michelson, Physics".www.lib.uchicago.edu.Archived fromthe originalon October 21, 2017.RetrievedAugust 2,2019.
  4. ^"Guide to the Albert A. Michelson Papers 1891–1969".www.lib.uchicago.edu.Archived fromthe originalon September 7, 2019.RetrievedAugust 2,2019.
  5. ^"Michelson, Albert A. (Albert Abraham), 1852-1931".history.aip.org.Archived fromthe originalon March 22, 2019.RetrievedAugust 2,2019.
  6. ^National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, 1938, Vol. XIX) quotes (on p. 128) Michelson's sister, the novelist Miriam Michelson, as having written of her parents in a letter to Millikan that "both Albert Michelson's father and mother were born of Jewish parents..."
  7. ^"Albert Abraham Michelson 1852–1931".American Institute of Physics. Archived fromthe originalon February 3, 2016.RetrievedJanuary 27,2016.
  8. ^"APS Physics | FIP | Albert Abraham Michelson:" A Pole - well up in Arithmetic "".Archived fromthe originalon September 21, 2019.RetrievedSeptember 21,2019.
  9. ^Bulletin de la Société des sciences et des lettres de Łódź: Série, Recherches sur les déformations, Volumes 39–42.Société des sciences et des lettres de Łódź. 2003. p. 162.Michelson's biographers stress, that our hero was not conspicuous by religiousness. His father was a free-thinker and Michelson grew up in non-religious family and have no opportunity to acknowledge the belief of his forebears. He was agnostic through his whole life and only for the short period he was a member of the 21st lodge in Washington.
  10. ^John D. Barrow (2002).The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas About the Origins of the Universe.Random House Digital, Inc. p.136.ISBN978-0-375-72609-5.Morley was deeply religious. His original training had been in theology and he only turned to chemistry, a self-taught hobby, when he was unable to enter the ministry. Michelson, by contrast, was a religious agnostic.
  11. ^Livingston, Dorothy Michelson.The Master of Light: A Biography of Albert A. Michelson.University of Chicago Press. p. 106.On the religious question, Michelson disagreed with both these men. He had renounced any belief that moral issues were at stake in...
  12. ^Levy,920 O'Farrell Street,47.
  13. ^Nimitz Library's Virtual Exhibits – LibExhibits
  14. ^Shankland, Paul D.; Orchiston, Wayne (2002)."Nineteenth century astronomy at the U.S. Naval Academy"(PDF).Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage.5(2): 165.Bibcode:2002JAHH....5..165S.doi:10.3724/SP.J.1440-2807.2002.02.07.S2CID110077408.
  15. ^"USNO – Our Command History".U.S. Naval Observatory.Archived fromthe originalon June 6, 2011.RetrievedJune 2,2011.
  16. ^Shankland, Paul D.; Orchiston, Wayne (2002)."Nineteenth century astronomy at the U.S. Naval Academy"(PDF).Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage.5(2): 165–179.Bibcode:2002JAHH....5..165S.doi:10.3724/SP.J.1440-2807.2002.02.07.S2CID110077408.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on August 8, 2017.RetrievedNovember 26,2017.
  17. ^In 1879 a letter from James Clerk Maxwell to the astronomerDavid Peck Toddcame to the attention of Michelson, possibly giving him considerable motivation. See the bookSchwinger, J.(1986).Einstein's Legacy.Scientific American Library.2012 e-book.
  18. ^"raman-scattering.eu".Archived fromthe originalon March 24, 2012.RetrievedJune 2,2011.[failed verification]
  19. ^"Optics at the U.S. Naval Academy".Optics News.4(4). Optical Society of America: 14. 1978.doi:10.1364/ON.4.4.000014.
  20. ^"Michelson's 1879 determinations of the speed of light".Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo (Canada).
  21. ^"APS Member History".search.amphilsoc.org.RetrievedMay 19,2021.
  22. ^In November 1929, at the French Academy of Sciences, Michelson's death was erroneously announced, seehttp://cnum.cnam.fr/CGI/fpage.cgi?4KY28.118/97/100/598/5/588andhttp://cnum.cnam.fr/CGI/fpage.cgi?4KY28.118/183/100/598/5/588
  23. ^"UChicago names building after pioneering physicist Albert Michelson".UChicago News.University of Chicago.RetrievedJanuary 22,2021.[permanent dead link]
  24. ^"Michelson Remembered".Nimitz Library, US Naval Academy. Archived fromthe originalon October 22, 2017.RetrievedOctober 22,2017.
  25. ^"The ABB Sponsored Bomem-Michelson Award".Coblentz Society.2017. Archived fromthe originalon October 23, 2017.RetrievedOctober 22,2017.
  26. ^"Michelson Lectures".Case Western Reserve University.2017. Archived fromthe originalon May 13, 2017.RetrievedOctober 22,2017.
  27. ^"Michelson Postdoctoral Prize Lectureship".Case Western Reserve University. 2017. Archived fromthe originalon May 13, 2017.RetrievedOctober 22,2017.
  28. ^"Awards & Scholarships: AA Michelson Award Winners".Computer Measurement Group.2017. Archived fromthe originalon October 22, 2017.RetrievedOctober 22,2017.
  29. ^"Albert A. Michelson Award".Navy League of the United States.2016. Archived fromthe originalon October 19, 2018.RetrievedDecember 25,2018.
  30. ^"Michelson Memorial Lecture Series".U.S. Naval Academy.2017. Archived fromthe originalon October 22, 2017.RetrievedOctober 22,2017.
  31. ^James, I. (2009). Driven to Innovate: A Century of Jewish Mathematicians and Physicists p. 101.ISBN978-1-906165-22-2."In 1877, he married Margaret Hemingway, daughter of a wealthy New York stockbroker and lawyer. This marriage lasted twenty years and produced two sons and a daughter."
  32. ^abden Boer, Marten (1999). "Michelson, Albert Abraham".American National Biography(online ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1301131.(subscription required)
  33. ^"Links".
  34. ^"The Master of Light".The Attic.Archived fromthe originalon February 2, 2020.RetrievedJanuary 7,2020.
  35. ^Michelson, Albert A. "Experimental Determination of the Velocity of Light Made at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis".
  36. ^ab"Albert A. Michelson – Biographical".Archivedfrom the original on December 22, 2021.RetrievedJuly 9,2022.
  37. ^ Garner, C. L., Captain (retired) (April 1949)."A Geodetic Measurement of Unusually High Accuracy"(PDF).U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Journal.Coast and Geodetic Survey: 68–74. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on March 25, 2009.RetrievedAugust 13,2009.{{cite journal}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  38. ^"Michelson's Last Experiment".Science.73(1899): 10–14. May 22, 1931.doi:10.1126/science.73.1899.10.PMID17843974.
  39. ^abMichelson, A. A.; Pease, F. G.; Pearson, F. (1935)."Measurement of the velocity of light in a partial vacuum".Contributions from the Mount Wilson Observatory.522(2091): 100–1.Bibcode:1935Sci....81..100M.doi:10.1126/science.81.2091.100-a.PMID17816642.S2CID28035563– viaAstrophysics Data System.
  40. ^Oldford, R. W.; MacKay, R. J. (August 2000)."Light".Statistical Science.15(3): 254–278.doi:10.1214/ss/1009212817.ISSN0883-4237.
  41. ^Dekking, F. M.; Kraaikamp, C.; Lopuhaä, H. P.; Meester, L. E. (2005).A Modern Introduction to Probability and Statistics: Understanding Why and How.Springer. p. 248.ISBN978-1852338961.
  42. ^Swenson, Loyd S. Jr.,The Ethereal Aether: A History of the Michelson–Morley–Miller Aether-Drift Experiments, 1880–1930,University of Texas Press, 1972
  43. ^Note that while Einstein's 1905 paperOn the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodiesappears to reference the experiment on first glance— "together with the unsuccessful attempts to discover any motion of the earth relatively to the 'light medium', suggest that the phenomena of electrodynamics as well as of mechanics possess no properties corresponding to the idea of absolute rest" —it has been shown that Einstein was referring to a different category of experiments here.
  44. ^Holton, Gerald, "Einstein, Michelson, and the 'Crucial' Experiment",Isis,Vol. 60, No. 2 (Summer, 1969), pp. 133–197
  45. ^AA. Michelson and E. W. Morley, Amer. J. Sci.34, 427 (1887); Phil Mag. 24, 463 (1887).
  46. ^Michelson, Albert A.;Stratton, Samuel W.(1898). "A New Harmonic Analyzer".American Journal of Science.
  47. ^Hammack, Bill;Krantz, Steve;Carpenter, Bruce (2014).Albert Michelson's Harmonic Analyzer.Blurb.ISBN978-0983966166.
  48. ^Maclean, Norman F. (Summer 1975)."Billiards is a good game".The University of Chicago Magazine. Archived fromthe originalon August 17, 2018.RetrievedAugust 16,2018.
  49. ^"Henry Draper Medal".National Academy of Sciences. Archived fromthe originalon January 26, 2013.RetrievedFebruary 19,2011.

References

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Works

[edit]
  • Light waves and their uses (1907)
    Light waves and their uses(1907)
  • French translation of Experimental Determination of the Velocity of Light (1894)
    French translation ofExperimental Determination of the Velocity of Light(1894)
[edit]
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