Space-Time Lab - Tutor Page 6



The experiment was set up like this:
Every sailor knows that it takes longer to sail against a headwind (and then return with a tailwind) than to sail across it. (Please look at the derivation at the left, you may want to come back to it after reading the next couple pages.) Because the ether didn't move and light propagated in it, light would move faster or slower depending on how the light was oriented to the direction of motion. An ether wind, like the wind past your car on a calm day, was predicted by the ether theory. This ether wind could be used to measure a body's absolute motion.

Click Next and we'll try to measure a body's 'absolute motion'.
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