2 ms·
Came here to see if someone had mentioned this. It's interesting because it's just unbelievable that light would go at different speeds in different directions
by ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
Came here to see if someone had mentioned this.
It's interesting because it's just unbelievable that light would go at different speeds in different directions, but there's no way (that we can think of) to verify it. It's like the structure of space-time is conspiring against being able to measure one-way light speed.
- gumby 3y agoSure: the Michelson-Morley interferometry experiment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson–Morley_experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson–Morley_experiment
- ndsipa_pomu 3y agoDoesn't that rely on synchronising the detector with the emitter though? That's the issue that makes one-way measurements effectively a round trip measurement. Edit: looks to me like mirrors are used and it is comparing two-way speeds in different directions.
- mikewarot 3y agoIf you look at the folded light path used in the Michelson–Morley interferometer (figure 5), you'll see that the X and Y distances traveled on both paths add to the exact same value. Thus, it would be completely insensitive to changes in the speed of light in the X or Y directions, no matter how it were rotated.
- gumby 3y agoThe whole point of that experiment was that it would show a difference, if such a difference existed, by projecting an interference pattern.