What is the Michelson and Morley experiment?
Please don't give me Wikipedia
Check this site.
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Michelson-MorleyExperiment.html
It was an experiment to determine if the speed of light depends upon the direction of the light. Until then, it was believed that light consisted of vibrations in a massless fluid called ether that fills the universe. If this were true, the Earth would be travelling through it with some velocity, and the speed of light would depend upon the direction of the light compared to that of the Earth's motion.
No dependence upon direction was found. The experiment helped support Einstein's Theory of Relativity.
I am sure you can find many links that describe how the experiment was done, including the one Ms. Sue provided.
The Michelson-Morley experiment is a famous physics experiment conducted in 1887 by Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley. It was designed to detect the existence and properties of a hypothetical medium called "ether," which was believed to be the medium through which light waves traveled.
To explain the experiment's setup, imagine a beam of light traveling along two perpendicular paths. The apparatus they used involved a half-silvered glass plate that would split the incoming beam into two separate beams, each one traveling along a different path. These paths were then reflected back by mirrors and recombined on a screen.
If the Earth were moving through the ether, it was expected that the speed of light along one of the paths would be slightly different from the speed in the other perpendicular direction. This difference in speed would cause the recombined beams to interfere with each other, resulting in a visible interference pattern on the screen.
However, to their surprise, Michelson and Morley found that there was no observable interference pattern, suggesting that the speed of light was the same in all directions, regardless of the Earth's motion. This experimental result was inconsistent with the prevailing theory of the ether and had profound implications for the understanding of physics, eventually leading to the development of Einstein's theory of relativity.
To get a more detailed explanation or explore the experiment further, I would suggest consulting reliable physics textbooks, online educational platforms, or scholarly articles on the topic. These sources will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the experiment and its significance in the history of physics.