Title :
Reinterpretation of the Michelson-Morley experiment based on the GPS Sagnac correction
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Nat. Tsing Hua Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan
Abstract :
By examining the effects of rotational and orbital motions of the Earth on wave propagation in the Global Positioning System and a transpacific microwave link, it is pointed out that Earth´s orbital motion has no influence on these Earthbound wave propagations, while Earth´s rotation does contribute to the Sagnac effect. As the propagation mechanism in the Michelson-Morley experiment cannot be different from that in the aforementioned ones, it is concluded that due to Earth´s rotation, the shift in interference fringes in this famous experiment is not exactly zero. However, by virtue of the round-trip propagation path, this shift becomes second order and hence is too small to observe within the present accuracy.
Keywords :
Earth orbit; Earth rotation; Global Positioning System; microwave links; microwave propagation; radiowave interferometry; GPS Sagnac correction; Global Positioning System; Michelson-Morley experiment; interference fringe; orbital motions; rotational motions; transpacific microwave link; wave propagation; Earth; Electromagnetic propagation; Electromagnetic scattering; Global Positioning System; Interference; Microwave propagation; Optical propagation; Sagnac interferometers; Satellite broadcasting; Satellite ground stations;
Conference_Titel :
Microwave Conference, 2001. APMC 2001. 2001 Asia-Pacific
Conference_Location :
Taipei, Taiwan
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7138-0
DOI :
10.1109/APMC.2001.985414