On the role of the Michelson-Morley experiment: Einstein in Chicago

DOI10.1007/S00407-009-0050-5MaRDI QIDQ1039931zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Jeroen van Dongen

Publication date 23 November 2009

Published in Archive for History of Exact Sciences (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0908.1545

zbMATH Keywords

EinsteinMichelson-MorleySpecial relativity

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 20th century (01A60) History of relativity and gravitational theory (83-03)

Abstract: This article discusses new material, published in Volume 12 of the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, that addresses Einstein's knowledge of the Michelson-Morley experiment prior to 1905: in a lecture in Chicago in 1921, Einstein referred to the experiment, mentioned when he came upon it, and hinted at its influence. Arguments are presented to explain the contrast with Einstein's later pronouncements on the role of the experiment.

Review text

Basing himself on some new material published in volume 12 of Einstein's Collected Papers, the author suggests that among Einstein's somewhat contradictory statements concerning his knowledge of the Michelson-Morley experiment before 1905, the earlier ones are more reliable. This would mean that the experiment played a more important role than his later statements imply.

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Cites work

• `Nature is the realisation of the simplest conceivable mathematical ideas': Einstein and the canon of mathematical simplicity
• Albert Einstein on His Seventieth Birthday
• Einstein and the Kaluza-Klein particle
• Einstein's "Kyoto Lecture": The Michelson-Morley Experiment
• Einstein, Michelson, and the "Crucial" Experiment
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(3)

• Abraham Albert Michelson and ``his cloud -- some history and epistemological analysis.
• On the interpretation of Michelson-Morley experiments
• Einstein's reinterpretation of the Fizeau experiment: how it turned out to be crucial for special relativity

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