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    Aether, Light and Relativity

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    Ali Hasn
    The document summarizes the history of the concept of the luminiferous aether and its relationship to the development of the theory of relativity. It describes James Maxwell's discovery of electromagnetic waves, the idea that light must propagate through a medium called the aether, experiments by Michelson and Morley to detect the aether, and their results which found no evidence of the aether. This led Einstein to develop his theory of special relativity which demonstrated that light propagates through empty space and does not require a medium, revolutionizing the understanding of space and time.

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    Aether, Light and Relativity

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    Ali Hasn
    20 views11 pages
    The document summarizes the history of the concept of the luminiferous aether and its relationship to the development of the theory of relativity. It describes James Maxwell's discovery of electromagnetic waves, the idea that light must propagate through a medium called the aether, experiments by Michelson and Morley to detect the aether, and their results which found no evidence of the aether. This led Einstein to develop his theory of special relativity which demonstrated that light propagates through empty space and does not require a medium, revolutionizing the understanding of space and time.

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    This is a simple description about aether and the nature of light

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    The document summarizes the history of the concept of the luminiferous aether and its relationship to the development of the theory of relativity. It describes James Maxwell's discovery of electromagnetic waves, the idea that light must propagate through a medium called the aether, experiments by Michelson and Morley to detect the aether, and their results which found no evidence of the aether. This led Einstein to develop his theory of special relativity which demonstrated that light propagates through empty space and does not require a medium, revolutionizing the understanding of space and time.

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    20 views11 pages

    Aether, Light and Relativity

    Uploaded by

    Ali Hasn
    The document summarizes the history of the concept of the luminiferous aether and its relationship to the development of the theory of relativity. It describes James Maxwell's discovery of electromagnetic waves, the idea that light must propagate through a medium called the aether, experiments by Michelson and Morley to detect the aether, and their results which found no evidence of the aether. This led Einstein to develop his theory of special relativity which demonstrated that light propagates through empty space and does not require a medium, revolutionizing the understanding of space and time.

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    of 11

    AETHER, LIGHT AND RELATIVITY

    Ali Elwdah Physics

    ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES
    An English Scientist named James Maxwell discovered that a changing Magnetic field induces a changing electric field. This is called an electromagnetic wave and will not stop until it is absorbed by matter.

    LIGHT WAVES MEDIUM


    If sound travels through Air, Vibrations through mater, then how about light? Such a question developed the theory of Aether, previously known as the medium for light waves and was said to be distributed everywhere.

    WHAT IS AETHER?
    There were certain properties the substance aether must posses to successfully meet the requirements of being a medium for light. What were they? Scientists deduced that aether must be an Invisible substance, weightless and present everywhere even in objects.

    NOW COMES THE EXPERIMENTS


    In 1887 a pair of scientists Michelson and Morley attempted to detect aether by observing how the planet Earth moves through it.

    AN ANALOGY MAY HELP


    Imagine two boats travelling in a river both at right angles from each other with Boat A travelling North and Boat B travelling East. Now, also imagine that the river had a current going southwards. If both boats had to travel 1 kilometer and back then boat A would take more time due to the current. This principle was used for Michelson-Morleys experiment.

    THE EXPERIMENT
    In Michelson-Morleys experiment the analogy of the boats is the beam of light. The current was the aether wind caused by the orbiting nature of the Earth around the sun. On arrival back the two lights were directed to an inferometer which has the ability to accurately detect inference patterns.

    THE RESULTS
    There was NO CHANGE in the interference pattern. Either the experiment was wrong or Aether doesnt actually exist. The experiment was repeated.

    EINSTEIN
    Einstein develops the theory of special relativity and demonstrates that in fact does not need a medium to travel through,. He also realized that it had matter properties and wave properties. The principle of relativity and The Michelson- Morley experiment both contributed to Einstein's understanding of the special relativity.

    THE END

    BIBLIOGRAPHY
    http://www.studyphysics.ca/2007/30/07_emr/24_maxwell.pdf Physics Sapce K.I.S..S Booklet In2Physics text book http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/109N/lectures/michelson. html

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