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I was preparing some history notes for a few subjects next week and got sidetracked on some details of the Michelson and Morley experiment. Could someone clarify or answer a few questions? (1) What wavelength of light is usually used in the interferometer? (2) What were the expected results? (3) which arm was predicted to take longer? Some articles say the arm parallel with the direction of the medium would be longest time but other articles have it reversed. (4) most articles say there was no difference for either direction but every now and then an article will say there were small discrepancies as the experiment was rotated. So I'm not sure what that means. Thanks

Bill Alsept
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    Have a look at http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Relativ/mmhist.html – anna v Jun 04 '17 at 04:53
  • @annav thanks, the second paragraph already answered my 1st question. I'll read the rest. –  Jun 04 '17 at 05:39
  • So in the third paragraph it mentions a fringe shift of .0005 which is something. –  Jun 04 '17 at 07:46
  • As you perhaps know, Michelson conducted his first experiment in Potsdam in 1881 (without Morley): http://www.pik-potsdam.de/~thomas/michelson/Michelson.html – Jan Peter Schäfermeyer Jun 12 '17 at 10:33

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