[Q] Michelson-Morley To The Rescue?

[litespeed]

Sirs:

 

It seems theory of relativity follows inevitably from data developed by M/M. Specifically, once the speed of light is determined to be a constant in all directions from a moving earth, what else could account for the data?

 

Put another way. Could Einstein or anyone else have developed the theory in absence of this data.

[Tormod]

The MM data only showed that the aether theory was wrong. Einstein was more directly influenced by James C Maxwell's equations.

 

Could someone else have come up with a finite speed of light? Most definitely.

[sanctus]

Anyway, wasn't the speed of light measured to finite before Einstein? There was this method shining light on a turning "wheel" (don't know the english word, I mean a wheel like a turbine, so the light pass only every x seconds)

[litespeed]

To: Tormod: You wrote: "...Einstein was more directly influenced by James C Maxwell's equations."

 

"... the theory of electromagnetism was developed into Maxwell's equations [that] describe waves with a speed of 1/sqrt(epsilono*muo) ... This is an absolute velocity [that] was very close to the measured speed of light..."

Relativity Tutorial

 

I can easily understand M/M. However, I do not understand Maxwell. Did he have experimental data that led to this speed equation? And did he understand it to be absolute in all directions from a moving source? Absolute in all directions seems the logical conclusion from M/M, but I am not a mathematician and do not understand this in Maxwell.