The moving earth and propagation of light

 

 Liu Youwei

shandacheng@263.net

 

Key sentence: the light must suffer constraint while propagating on the surface of the earth.

 

Originally, the principle of Fresnel-Fizeau effect was considered connecting with Ether theory, later it was taken as a verification of Einstein’s Velocity Adding equation, which has nothing to do with Ether theory. According to this principle, since the earth is moving, if light rays suffer no restraint while propagating, dragging effect must occur.

 

Introduction to the experiment

If a beam of light is reflected (which propagates on the surface of the earth) with a mirror B as shown in Figure 1, then two beams of opposite directions light can be formed, as light beams A－>B and B－>C in figure 1.

Put a piece of glass plate into one of the beams of light ( A－> B or B－>C), and the light aberration will occur in the light path.

If this beam of light is a beam of interfering light, in which Point A is the very point where the light beam is split and Point C is the point where interfering happens between this beam of light and the other beam of light obtained at Point A. These two light beams will interfere with each other, and two different interference fringes will form before and after the glass plate is put in the light path.

As both the earth and the glass are moving, the existence of the glass plate in the light path will lead to the occurrence of dragging effects on the light beams penetrating through the glass plate. Furthermore, one of the dragging effects is positive and the other is negative. And the glass plates of the same thickness will contain different numbers of cycles of light waves in the light beams in opposite directions, which will lead to light aberration.

In the experiment, the glass plate should be quite ideal, that is, its two surfaces through which light rays penetrate must be exactly parallel to each other and its thickness must be the same anywhere in respect to light. This kind of ideal glass plates can be chosen in real work.

Because it is required that the glass plates put into the two light beams must exactly be of the same thickness, it is wise to put the same piece of glass plate into the two light beams in opposite directions. Make the light rays penetrate through the same area on the surface, and also make the light beams penetrate through the light plate in a way that it is exactly perpendicular to the surface of the glass plate. This can also be achieved in real work.

If the above two requirements can be met, then the relative positions of the interference fringes formed when the glass plate is put into one of the two light beams are comparable.

The principle diagram of this experiment is illustrated in Figure 2.

   The equipment used in this experiment is available in an ordinary optical laboratory. Light beams 6a and 6b in horizontal directions can be taken as the light beams A－>B－>C in Figure 1. Light beams 7a and 7b are both perpendicular to the surface of the earth. In the experiment the glass plate is put in these two light beams 6a and 6b.

   In the experiment, the equipment must be adjusted so that the stripes of the interfering fringes are all straight lines, and the numbers of the stripes should not be very large, so that it is easy to observe and analyze them.

If the positions of the interference fringes are different at the two times, then the glass on the moving earth does have dragging effect on light. If the positions are exactly the same, and however thick the glass plate used is. Then on the surface of the earth, the light must suffer constraint while propagating. This phenomenon may be a parable of “the Ether is dragged by the earth”.

By experimenting for many times, the positions of the original interference fringes are taken as reference, then the positions of the interference fringes at both times when the glass plate is put are exactly the same, regardless of the varying thickness of the glass plates. Obviously the results hold true for the latter view mentioned above, that is, the glass on the moving earth does not have any dragging effect on light propagating on the surface of the earth.

The results of repeated experiments indicate that, this phenomenon is not  an occasional one but rather a regular pattern.

The above mentioned experiment should only be concerned with the effect of single-direction light velocity. The diagram of the interference fringes only shows the relative velocity of the beam into which the glass plate is put, the other beam just plays a role of passing on and resuming.

In this experiment, matters of using light signal to reset clock does not exist at all.

   If the equipment is made to move in the same direction as the velocity of the light into which the glass plate is put, two results might occur. One might be the same as the result in static state mentioned above, that is there are no differences in the positions of the interference fringes, which may prove that in any reference system, single-direction light velocity keeps constant. The other might be that differences occur between the positions of the interference fringes after the glass plate is put into the two beams of light in opposite directions because of dragging effect. Thus the secret of light propagation both on the surfaces of other celestial bodies and in the universe will be discovered.

When the experiment is done in a spacecraft flying in the outer space, it must be very interesting to find the “ variance position status ” where the results at two different times do not coincide well, and the “ stillness position status ” where the results coincide well.

According to the dragging experiment done by our predecessors, if the equipment is made to move on the surface of the earth, the results that there are differences between the interference fringes positions when the glass plate is put into the beam might occur. And it is hoped that this moving experiment can be done as soon as possible, so that we can acquire more knowledge about the propagation of light.

 

 

 

 

 I hope learners interest in The Theory of Relativity can give this work a comment according to the basic principles of the theory of relativity.

 

 

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My email is: shandacheng@263.net