Physics Help Forum Michelson-Morley Experiment

 Special and General Relativity Special and General Relativity Physics Help Forum

 Sep 1st 2009, 02:01 PM #1 Junior Member   Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 21 Michelson-Morley Experiment I'm not sure if this belongs here... But I'm pretty sure it is since this part of the class is on Special Relativity. In one series of measurements of the speed of light, Michelson used a path length L of 27.4 km (17 mi). (a) What is the time needed for light to make the round trip of distance 2L? (b) What is the classical correction term in seconds in the equation $\displaystyle \Delta{t} = \frac{2L}{c}\left(\frac{1}{1 -\left(\frac{v^2}{c^2}\right)}\right) \approx \frac{2L}{c}\left(1 + \frac{v^2}{c^2}\right)$ assuming Earth's speed is $\displaystyle v = 10^{-4}c$. (c) From about 1600 measurements, Michelson arrived at a result for the speed of light of 299,796 $\displaystyle \pm$ 4 km/s. Is this experimental value accurate enough to be sensitive to the correction term above? Last edited by Aryth; Sep 1st 2009 at 02:04 PM.
 Sep 1st 2009, 03:25 PM #2 Physics Team     Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 310 What are your difficulties with these questions? Show an attempt. __________________ "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." - Thomas Jefferson. "Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes her laws." -Mayer Amschel Rothschild I study Mathematical Physics at the University of Waterloo. -DC

 Thread Tools Display Modes Linear Mode

 Similar Physics Forum Discussions Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post Michael77 Special and General Relativity 7 Mar 29th 2015 10:54 AM logandiez Light and Optics 18 Oct 27th 2014 09:26 AM tesla2 Quantum Physics 4 Oct 24th 2012 10:17 AM tesla2 Light and Optics 17 Oct 18th 2012 11:05 PM