in which luminiferous aether slowed the speed of light.
George FitzGerald thought he could explain
their negative result without ruling out aether
by suggesting that bodies contract
along the direction of their movement.
It happens that bodies do contract
along the direction of their movement
even though a better explanation
happens to be that aether doesn’t exist.
Speed of light
Length contraction would not noticable
unless the object were moving near the speed of light.
To measure the length of an object
we need to communicate with both ends of the object
simultaneously, but no communication travels
faster than the speed of light. Ack.
Not so simple. If you travel with the object,
it doesn’t change length as it speeds up.
It changes length only when
you sees it moving quickly away.
I thought I understood this,
but now I’m not so sure.
Happens to be
You cannot tell
you cannot smell
you cannot see it
but experiment
and reasoning
can make it real
FitzGerald, Henri Poincaré, and Hendrik Lorentz believed in length contraction
without knowing anything about relativity or why length contraction happens.
They proposed it to explain why attempts to measure the effects of aether failed
without giving up on the idea that aether exists.
This goes to show you can be right even though you are wrong.
FitzGerald, Henri Poincaré, and Hendrik Lorentz believed in length contraction without knowing anything about relativity or why length contraction happens. They proposed it to explain why attempts to measure the effects of aether failed without giving up on the idea that aether exists. This goes to show you can be right even though you are wrong.
See also in The book of science:
Readings on wikipedia: