[geocentrism] Michelson Interferometer
- From: "philip madsen" <pma15027@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "geocentrism list" <geocentrism@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2007 06:46:53 +1000
Interferometer
Well I did not exactly know what it did, maybe some others were not clear so I
posted it here.. Actually in this set up (which they do not explain too well
using terms like interference which is really a matter of in or out of phase
waves,) and really , "distructive interference" is simply out of phase waves.
One more piece of the puzzle I need. Perhaps Neville or Robert, please,
What is the mechanism used, whereby one would expect an "aether medium", to
affect the phase of the light beam by its movement lets say from left to right
in this illustration. It might help as well to please tell us how thes mirrors
could be placed with such precision in space within the resolution of such a
short wavelengths such as is the light spectrum, to be able to measure even
parts of such wavelengths.
Thanks,
And whilst we are of the experimental mind, could we not use Radar over a
greater distance (than the interferometer) for better resolution? Philip.
Michelson Interferometer
Main article: Michelson interferometer
A Michelson interferometer.
A very common example of an interferometer is the Michelson (or
Michelson-Morley) type. Here the basic building blocks are a monochromatic
source (emitting light or matter waves), a detector, two mirrors and one
semitransparent mirror (often called beam splitter). These are put together as
shown in the figure.
There are two paths from the (light) source to the detector. One reflects off
the semi-transparent mirror, goes to the top mirror and then reflects back,
goes through the semi-transparent mirror, to the detector. The other one goes
through the semi-transparent mirror, to the mirror on the right, reflects back
to the semi-transparent mirror, then reflects from the semi-transparent mirror
into the detector.
If these two paths differ by a whole number (including 0) of wavelengths, there
is constructive interference and a strong signal at the detector. If they
differ by a whole number and a half wavelengths (e.g., 0.5, 1.5, 2.5 ...) there
is destructive interference and a weak signal. This might appear at first sight
to violate conservation of energy. However energy is conserved, because there
is a re-distribution of energy at the detector in which the energy at the
destructive sites are re-distributed to the constructive sites. The effect of
the interference is to alter the share of the reflected light which heads for
the detector and the remainder which heads back in the direction of the source.
The interferometer setup shown to the right was used in the famous
Michelson-Morley experiment that provided evidence for special relativity. In
Michelson's day, the interference pattern was obtained by using a gas discharge
lamp, a filter, and a thin slot or pinhole. In one version of the
Michelson-Morley experiment, they even ran the interferometer off starlight.
Starlight is temporally incoherent light, but since for small instruments it
can be considered as a point source of light it is spatially coherent and will
produce an interference pattern. The Michelson interferometer finds use not
only in these experiments but also for other purposes, e.g., in astronomical
interferometers (see astronomical section below) and gravitational wave
detectors.
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