Light Emission from a Moving Source in Connection with the Relativity Theory

Abstract

Light Emission from a Moving Source; a Generalized Explanation of the Michelson-Morley Experiment.---The paper is based upon unpublished work left by the late Nikolas Pashsky of Kieff. It is pointed out that the experiment does not prove the constancy of the velocity of light but merely that if light is sent out in all directions from the center of a spherical mirror, all rays after reflection will return simultaneously to the center no matter what the velocity of the system through space. This result requires merely that with respect to axes moving with the source, the velocity of light in a direction making an angle $\ensuremath{\phi}$ with the direction of motion is given by ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{\phi}}=\frac{\ensuremath{\sigma}}{{\mathrm{I} + \sqrt{[\ensuremath{\psi}cos\frac{\ensuremath{\phi}}{(\ensuremath{\sigma}+\ensuremath{\psi}})]}}}$, when $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ and $\ensuremath{\psi}$ are arbitrary functions of the velocity of translation $v$, with the only conditions that for $v = 0$, $\ensuremath{\psi} = 0$ and $\ensuremath{\sigma} = c$. There are therefore an infinite number of possible hypotheses which will explain the experiment, in addition to the relativity theory, which assumes that ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{\phi}} = \mathrm{constant}$. The only way to decide the matter would be to measure the velocity of light by a method in which the ray of light would not return to its starting point.