The Fizeau experiment[1][2][3] was carried out by Hippolyte Fizeau in 1851 to measure the relative speeds of light in moving water. Fizeau used a special interferometer arrangement to measure the effect of movement of a medium upon the speed of light.
According to the theories prevailing at the time, light traveling through a moving medium would be dragged along by the medium, so that the measured speed of the light would be a simple sum of its speed through the medium plus the speed of the medium. Fizeau indeed detected a dragging effect, but the magnitude of the effect that he observed was far lower than expected. When he repeated the experiment with air in place of water he observed no effect. His results seemingly supported the partial aether-drag hypothesis of Fresnel, a situation that was disconcerting to most physicists. Over half a century passed before a satisfactory explanation of Fizeau's unexpected measurement was developed with the advent of Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity. Einstein later pointed out the importance of the experiment for special relativity, in which it corresponds to the relativistic velocity-addition formula when restricted to small velocities.
Although it is referred to as the Fizeau experiment, Fizeau was an active experimenter who carried out a wide variety of different experiments involving measuring the speed of light in various situations.
- ^ Becker, Richard; Sauter, Fritz (1 January 1982). Electromagnetic Fields and Interactions. Courier Corporation. p. 308. ISBN 978-0-486-64290-1. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
- ^ Rohrlich, Fritz (25 August 1989). From Paradox to Reality: Our Basic Concepts of the Physical World. Cambridge University Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-521-37605-1. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
- ^ Rosser, W. G. V. (6 January 1992). Introductory Special Relativity. CRC Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-85066-838-4. Retrieved 9 March 2023.