The Michelson Interferometer

The Results

Michelson and Morley expected the fringe pattern to change as the interferometer's arms were spun to face into and against the ether wind. They took careful measurements of the wave pattern at each point of the rotation.

The surprising results were that the wave pattern measurements hardly shifted.

Click the Rotate button to view the results.

results

©2012 WGBH Educational Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Adapted from PlanetQuest: "SIM Lite Astrometric Observatory"/NASA/JPL. Images courtesy of Archival Photographic Files, apf6-00086, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library, and Library of Congress.