Fizeau's "aether-drag" experiment in the undergraduate laboratory
Optics
2012-06-15 v1 Physics Education
History and Philosophy of Physics
Abstract
We describe a simple realization of Fizeau's "aether-drag" experiment. Using an inexpensive setup, we measure the phase shift induced by moving water in a laser interferometer and find good agreement with the relativistic prediction or, in the terms of nineteenth century physics, with Fresnel's partial-drag theory. This appealing experiment, particularly suited for an undergraduate laboratory project, not only allows a quantitative measurement of a relativistic effect on a macroscopic system, but also constitutes a practical application of important concepts of optics, data acquisition and processing, and fluid mechanics.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1201.0501,
title = {Fizeau's "aether-drag" experiment in the undergraduate laboratory},
author = {Thierry Lahaye and Pierre Labastie and Renaud Mathevet},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1201.0501},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
9 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Am. J. Phys