The Principle of Relativity; Original Papers

Excerpt from The Principle of Relativity: Original Papers <p>Arago's prism experiment - The refractive index of a glass prism depends on the incident velocity of light outside the prism and its velocity inside the prism after refraction. On Fresnel's fixed ether hypothesis, the incident light waves are situated in the stationary ether outside the prism and move with velocity 0 with respect to the ether. If the prism moves with a velocity u with respect to this fixed ether, then the incident velocity bf light with respect to the prism should be c+u. Thus the refractive index of the glass prism should depend on a, the absolute velocity of the prism, i.e., its velocity with respectto the fixed ether. Arago performed the experiment in 1819, but failed to detect the expected change. <p>About the Publisher <p>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com <p>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.