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Light and Its Application to Relativity

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Abstract

In 1851 Fizeau made an interferometric measurement to determine how the speed of light is affected in a moving medium [1]. The chosen medium was water, flowing at a velocity v of about 700 cm/s through the U-tube configuration shown in Fig. 3.1. Each tube section had a length ≈150 mm, with a tube diameter ≈5.3 cm. Light from a source is directed to a 50/50 beamsplitter and lens, where two collimated beams A and B entered the end of each tube. The light beams exited the other ends of the tubes, where they were focused to a flat mirror by a second lens. The reflected beams were then returned through the tubes and focused to a screen where they formed interference fringes, the path lengths of each beam being the same. Light beam A moved with the velocity of the water, while light beam B moved against the velocity of the water.

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  1. Austin, TX, USA

    Dennis F. Vanderwerf

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  1. Dennis F. Vanderwerf
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Correspondence to Dennis F. Vanderwerf .

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Vanderwerf, D.F. (2017). Light and Its Application to Relativity. In: The Story of Light Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64316-8_3

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