michelson-morley experiment in English
noun
1
an experiment performed in 1887 that attempted to measure the relative motion of the earth and the ether by measuring the speed of light in directions parallel and perpendicular to the earth's motion. The result disproved the existence of the ether, which contradicted Newtonian physics but was explained by Einstein's special theory of relativity.
Use "michelson-morley experiment" in a sentence
Below are sample sentences containing the word "michelson-morley experiment" from the English Dictionary. We can refer to these sentence patterns for sentences in case of finding sample sentences with the word "michelson-morley experiment", or refer to the context using the word "michelson-morley experiment" in the English Dictionary.
1. Einstein extended this principle so that it accounted for the constant speed of light, a phenomenon that had been recently observed in the Michelson–Morley experiment.
2. To explain the negative outcome of the Michelson–Morley experiment, George FitzGerald (1889) and Hendrik Lorentz (1892) introduced the contraction hypothesis, according to which a body is contracted during its motion through the stationary aether.