Experiment –

Light beam from a source S is incident on a wave splitter, which is a semi-silvered glass plate. The
plate splits the beams into two coherent beams and out of them one is transmitted and the other is
reflected. The transmitted rays strike the mirror M1 and from there it is reflected back into the plate.
The reflected beam strikes the mirror M2 and is also reflected back into the plate. The returned
beams from M1 and M2 reach the telescope T. The superposition of these two rays produces
interference pattern, which are seen through the telescope.

Fig. 1

The separation between P and M1 and P and M2 is same and is equal to I and this separation is
called the length of the arm. The light will be reflected back from mirrors M1 and M2 respectively
and will interfere at P. The interference pattern is noticed by telescope T.

Fig. 2

As the apparatus and light are both moving in same direction that is when light is going towards M’2.
Thus, relative velocity will be c – v. After reflection, the apparatus and the light both are moving in
the opposite direction that is when light is going towards P. The relative velocity then will be c + v.

This experiment was performed day and night at different times of the year. Even though the
sensitivity of the set-up is to detect a shift of 0.01 fringe, no such shift was observed. Similar
experiments were repeated by several groups, but the result was same. The experiment shows that
speed of light is same in space irrespective of the direction and speed of inertial frame.