CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE RESEARCH LABORATORY OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.—No. 42.
THE PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVITY, AND NON-NEWTONIAN MECHANICS.
By Gilbert N. Lewis and Richard C. Tolman.
Presented May 18, 1909.Recieved May 18, 1909.
Until a few years ago every known fact about light, electricity, and magnetism was in agreement with the theory of a stationary medium or ether, pervading all space, but offering no resistance to the motion of ponderable matter. This theory of a stagnant ether led to the belief that the absolute velocity of the earth through this medium could be determined by optical and electrical measurements. Thus it was predicted that the time required for a beam of light to pass over a given distance, from a fixed point to a mirror and back, should be different in a path lying in the direction of the earth's motion, and in a path lying at right angles to this line of motion. This prediction was tested in the crucial experiment of Michelson and Morley,[1] who found, in spite of the extreme precision of their method, not the slightest difference in the different paths.
It was also predicted from the ether theory that a charged condenser suspended by a wire would be subject to a torsional effect due to the earth's motion. But the absence of this effect was proved experimentally by Trouton and Noble.[2]
The skill with which these experiments were designed and executed permits no serious doubt as to the accuracy of their results, and we are therefore forced to adopt certain new views of far-reaching importance.
It is true that the results of Michelson and Morley might be simply explained by assuming that the velocity of light depends upon the velocity of its source. Perhaps this assumption has formerly been dismissed without sufficient reason, but recent experimental evidence to which we shall revert seems to prove it untenable.
- ↑ Amer. Jour. Sci., 34, 333 (1887)
- ↑ Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. (A), 202, 165 (1904).
