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Incoming links: Albert A. Michelson
Albert A. Michelson Created 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-10-31
A physicist.[ref]
https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/michelson-a-a.pdf. Independent biographical identity and professional specialization
The Michelson interferometer turns a change in an optical path into a shift of interference fringes. Controlling the returning beams and counting the shifts can connect very small distances to a wavelength.
Portrait of Albert A. Michelson
. Moffett Studio; The World's Work 41 (1921), p. 420. Commons PD-US claim based on expired protection / pre-1931 publication; status outside the US may differ., via Wikimedia Commons. Source.
Edward W. Morley Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-11-05
Edward W. Morley and Albert A. Michelson tested whether the orientation of an interferometer revealed motion through the proposed luminiferous aether. Perpendicular optical paths were recombined to form interference fringes; rotating the instrument tested for the predicted change in their relative travel times. The measured shift was much smaller than the prediction based on a stationary luminiferous aether and the Earth's orbital motion. The experiment constrained that model through a differential optical measurement, rather than directly timing a single light pulse.[ref]
On the Relative Motion of the Earth and the Luminiferous Ether by Albert Abraham Michelson and Edward W. Morley. 1887 report, perpendicular paths, rotation and comparison of measured with predicted fringe displacements
Portrait of Edward W. Morley
. Photographer not identified; portrait of Edward Williams Morley in 1887; source University of Maryland aether-drift page. Public domain in the United States as asserted by Commons. Source usage terms, via Wikimedia Commons. Source.