| Trouton-rankine Experiment |
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Information AboutTrouton-rankine Experiment |
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DESCRIPTION The famous Michelson-Morley Experiment of 1887 showed that the then accepted Aether theory was not correct. FitzGerald and Lorentz , independent of each other proposed a contraction that would explain the null result of the Michelson Morley experiment. Lorentz showed that this Contraction Hypothesis along with what he referred to as "local time" made the Maxwell equations and Lorentz force law invariant to first order in a moving frame (he later expounded upon this to make Maxwell's equations perfectly invariant in a moving frame in agreement with special relativity). Therefore in Lorentz Ether Theory and in Special Relativity , the Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction is not measurable in a co-moving frame. Trouton and Rankine however believed that if one frame saw a contraction of the object that it should be measurable in the object's rest frame. It was this effect that the experiment sought to measure. Trouton together with A.O. Rankine set out to verify this in 1908 by attempting to measure the change of the resistance of a coil as they changed its orientation to the "aether velocity" (the velocity of the lab through the Luminiferous Aether ). This was done by putting four identical such coils in a Wheatstone Bridge configuration which allowed them to precisely measure any change in resistance. The circuit was then rotated through 90 degrees about its axis as the resistance was measured. Because the Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction is only in the direction of motion, from the point of view of the "Aether frame" the length of the coils depended on their angle with respect to their Aether velocity. Trouton and A.O. Rankine therefore believed that the resistance as measured in the rest frame of the experiment should change as the device was rotated. However their careful measurements showed no change in resistance was detectable. |
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