An Attempt to Interpret the Result of Michelson’s Experiment.

R. Birkeland. An attempt to explain the Michelson Interference-Experiment — Philosophical Magazine, 37, p. 150 (1919).

The result of Michelson’s experiment is, according to Birkeland, equivalent to an anisotropy of the ether around the earth. The anisotropy may arise as a consequence of the motion of the earth, and the degree of anisotropy should decrease with increasing distance from the earth. If the speed of light in the direction of the earth’s motion is \(C\), then from Michelson’s experiment it follows that the speed of light in some direction making an angle \(\varphi\) with the direction of the earth will be:

\[ C_{\varphi}=C\left(1-\frac{1}{2}\frac{v^{2}}{c^{2}}\sin^{2}\varphi\right) \]

The frequency of light vibrations propagating from some point on the surface of the earth must not depend on direction.

The formula written above is evidently suitable only at the surface of the earth. The question of the dependence of \(C_{\varphi}\) on the distance from the earth is not considered by Birkeland.

S. Vavilov.