Volume 6: Pages 487-491, 1993
A Postulational Formulation of the Michelson‐Morley Experiment
Euclid Eberle Moon 1
1Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 U.S.A.
In this paper the Michelson‐Morley experiment is analyzed from the point of view of three postulates on the propagation of light: Postulate I (Einstein, 1905), Postulate II (Ritz, 1908), and Postulate III (Moon and Spencer, 1956). In a reference system that is stationary with respect to the laboratory, all three postulates predict the experimentally determined null effect. This paper investigates the predictions based on each postulate in coordinate systems moving at a constant velocity with respect to the laboratory and in coordinate systems that are uniformly accelerated in a straight line.
Keywords: velocity of light, Michelson‐Morley experiment, interpretation of the Michelson‐Morley experiment, postulates on the velocity of light, FitzGerald contraction, interpretation of the FitzGerald contraction, accelerated coordinate systems, constant velocity coordinate systems
Received: January 9, 1992; Published Online: December 15, 2008
