RelativityChallenge - F.A.Q. (c) 2005

Experimental Evidence F.A.Q.

Didn't the Michelson and Morley experiment return a null result?

No. Unfortunately, may modern textbooks represent the Michelson and Morley experiment as having returned a null result. Michelson and Morley indicated that they detected a velocity of 1/6th to 1/4th of their expected result of 30 km/s, or about 5 to 7.5 km/s. Since SRT requires the Michelson and Morley experiment to return null, this result is accepted as experimental error.

The re-evaluation of the Michelson and Morley results, correcting for interacting frequencies as governed by the superposition of waves principle, changes their result to 32 km/s. These results, which agree with Michelson and Morley's expected result as well as the known earth orbital velocity, are much harder to dismiss as experimental error. Importantly, this agrees with the predictions of the CICS model.

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