Abstract
The original mathematical treatment used in the analysis of the Fizeau experiment of 1851, which measured the relative speed of light in a moving medium, assumes that light travels through the water in a smooth continuous flow, at a speed less than the speed of light in a vacuum (relative to the water). Thus, it assumes that the water’s velocity vector can simply be added to that of the light. However, light is transmitted through optical media, such as water, by a continuous process of charge excitation (semi-absorption) and re-emission by the water molecules; but travels between them at the full speed of light (in a vacuum). Thus, the mathematics describing the process of Fresnel dragging must be formulated differently and can then be explained by classical physics, allowing the entire process to be fully visualized.
Highlights
Fresnel’s formula describing the effect on the transmission speed of light travelling through a moving optical medium was originally formulated in 1818, and based on the idea that the ether was partially dragged along by the moving medium; as discussed in [1].Later in 1851, Hippolyte Fizeau conducted an experiment to test this prediction and found it to be true [2]
The original mathematical treatment used in the analysis of the Fizeau experiment of 1851, which measured the relative speed of light in a moving medium, assumes that light travels through the water in a smooth continuous flow, at a speed less than the speed of light in a vacuum
Plained the Fresnel dragging effect in terms of Relativistic addition of velocities and Einstein soon adopted this approach. These theories explaining the Fresnel dragging effect make the same assumption that the light travels at a smooth, continuous rate determined by the refractive index of the optical medium through which it is travelling
Summary
Fresnel’s formula describing the effect on the transmission speed of light travelling through a moving optical medium was originally formulated in 1818, and based on the idea that the ether (which light was presumed to travel through at the time) was partially dragged along by the moving medium; as discussed in [1]. Later in 1851, Hippolyte Fizeau conducted an experiment to test this prediction and found it to be true [2]. It was again tested and confirmed by Michelson and Morley in 1886 [3]; the cause of the effect is still interpreted as entrained ether
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