Michelson experiment question/modern physics

[relativitydude]

I don't know how to proceed on this question. It says:

A shift of one fringe in the michelson-morley experiment would result from a difference of one wavelength or a change of one period of vibration in the round trip travel of light when the inferometer is rotated 90º What speed would michelson have compared for Earth's motion through the either is the result was seen as one shift of a fringe?

OK, it has been a while since I dabbled in optics. What optic eqs should I use?

 

[OlderDan]

I don't know how to proceed on this question. It says:

A shift of one fringe in the michelson-morley experiment would result from a difference of one wavelength or a change of one period of vibration in the round trip travel of light when the inferometer is rotated 90º What speed would michelson have compared for Earth's motion through the either is the result was seen as one shift of a fringe?

OK, it has been a while since I dabbled in optics. What optic eqs should I use?

[tex]c = f \lambda[/tex]

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/phyopt/michel.html

 

[thepatientmental]

The Michelson-Morley experiment was a crucial experiment in modern physics that aimed to detect the existence of a hypothetical medium called the "ether" through which light was thought to propagate. The experiment involved splitting a beam of light into two perpendicular beams and then recombining them to create an interference pattern. The expected outcome was that the interference pattern would shift as the Earth moved through the ether, but the experiment showed no such shift.

To answer the question about the speed of Earth's motion through the ether, we need to understand the concept of fringe shift in the Michelson-Morley experiment. A fringe shift refers to the change in the interference pattern caused by changing the path length of one of the beams. This can be achieved by rotating the interferometer, which changes the path length of one of the beams.

In the experiment, if the interferometer is rotated by 90 degrees, there will be a change of one wavelength or one period of vibration in the round trip travel of light. This means that the path length of one of the beams has changed by one wavelength. Using this information, we can calculate the speed of Earth's motion through the ether.

We can use the equation v = λf, where v is the speed of light, λ is the wavelength, and f is the frequency of light. In this case, we know that the change in path length is one wavelength, and the frequency of light remains constant. Therefore, the speed of Earth's motion through the ether would be equal to the speed of light, v.

In conclusion, the speed of Earth's motion through the ether can be calculated using the equation v = λf, where the change in path length is equal to one wavelength. This is the result that Michelson and Morley found in their experiment, which ultimately led to the rejection of the concept of the ether and the development of Einstein's theory of relativity.