Michelson–Morley experiment
The Michelson–Morley experiment was an attempt to measure the motion of the Earth relative to the luminiferous aether, a supposed medium permeating space that was thought to be the carrier of light waves. The experiment was performed between April and July 1887 by American physicists Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and published in November of the same year.
Michelson and Morley's interferometric setup, mounted on a stone slab that floats in an annular trough of mercury
Fringe pattern produced with a Michelson interferometer using white light. As configured here, the central fringe is white rather than black.
Albert Abraham Michelson FFRS FRSE was a Prussian-born American physicist of Jewish descent, known for his work on measuring the speed of light and especially for the Michelson–Morley experiment. In 1907 he received the Nobel 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 of Case School of Applied Science and the University of Chicago.
Michelson in 1907 (photograph of Nobel laureate)
Page one of Michelson's Experimental Determination of the Velocity of Light
Concluding page of Michelson's Experimental Determination of the Velocity of Light
Lt. Cmdr. Albert A. Michelson while serving in the U.S. Navy. He rejoined the U.S. Navy in World War I, when this portrait was taken.
