Jed Rothwell wrote: > The Michelson-Morley experiment and interferometer, and the 1919 > Eddington eclipse observations are discussed in the book by Collins & > Pinch, "The Golem" Cambridge U., 1993. To summarize both the > experiment and the observations were a can of worms, and a lot less > definitive than most history book portray.
Which is irrelevant because they have been replicated, with variations, many times over. It's a very difficult experiment but that doesn't keep people from replicating it, because it's also a very important experiment. (Note that the difficulty stems in large part from the fact that the effect being tested for is *second* *order*. To first order, emission theory, relativity, and aether theory all agree, and predict no shift. Consequently a sloppily done MMX is of no value, because the looked for effects will be swamped in the noise, or, if the apparatus isn't sufficiently rigid and there is a systematic flex, the effects will be overwhelmed by a false "signal". In general, amateurs need not apply -- a version of this done in your basement won't be precise enough to prove anything.) History books commonly simplify things, because nobody can learn all the details of everything that happened, and learning a simplified version is typically better than failing to learn a more "accurate" version because you drowned in the sea of details. If we go by commonly taught history Einstein came up with general relativity in a vacuum, the theory springing full blown from his brow like whoever that was and Zeus. In practice there were a lot of players involved, and the idea of geometric gravity was already blowing in the wind. > > This book also has a chapter on cold fusion with which I do not fully > agree. > > My copy of this book was apparently purloined from someone who signed > the inside cover: E. Mallove. > > - Jed >
