[ARC5] Michelson-Morley's inferometer & the "luminiferous" aether.

[Leslie Smith]

  Hello Gene + list readers,
  I've been wanting to ask two questions for a long time.  The first is
  about the M-M link with Einstein, and I have your answer to that.
  Your professor "opined" - and I suspect his opinion is the best
  available to us.

  The time between the M-M (say 1887) and the special theory (1905) 
  make the idea that Einstein was the first to seriously accept M-M's
  work at Case-Western.
   (I'm not sure when M-M worked as Case, or published, but sometime
   around 1885-7, approximately.)

  Since Einstein lived in Europe and communication was slower
  (particularly across the Atlantic) 1905 fits well into the time when
  the best physicists would seek to understand the enigma that the earth
  'happened' to be stationary wrt this substance called "luminiferous
  aether".  (Not simply "aether", but aether of the "luminiferous"
  variety.)  
I guess I  may never know - although it's a useful question for some-one
interested in the history and philosophy of science.
  If anyone has an more solid info than this - I'd be interested to hear
  it.

  My second question is much simpler.   I read Einstein had three
  photographs on his study  - Newton, James Clerk Maxwell and (maybe)
  Faraday.  
  (I'm not sure about the last.)  
  I've like to speak with anyone who has seen these photos, or has a
  photo showing the three photos, or has seen Einstein's study.
   I don't see them in the photograph of Einstein's office taken by
   Time-Life on the day he died.  
   The word "office" my refer to Princeton and "study" may refer to his
   home at Mercer Street.
   Has any-one seen these photos?

  73 de Les Smith
  vk2bcu at operamail.com

  PS  Perhaps this is the ARC-5 page, but where else can I ask this
  question and have a dog's chance of getting an answer?

  PPS  Einstein said his dog was very clever and felt sorry for him,
  because he got so much mail.
  That was why, he said, his dog chased the post-man.  
  Here, at my place in Australia, magpies 'swoop & bomb' post-men.
  I don't get much mail - except advertising.
  Does this mean the magpies feel sorry for me because I get lots of
  'junk' mail?


On Sun, Nov 17, 2013, at 1:58, Gene Smar wrote:
> Les:
> 
>      My college physics professor opined that MM did indeed influence 
> Einstein's thinking about light's velocity being a universal constant,
> hence leading to his famous thought experiment that gave rise to his theory of 
> relativity.  You're in good company, my friend.
> 
> 

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