On the Role of the Michelson–Morley Experiment: Einstein in Chicago

Archive for History of Exact Sciences 63 (6):655-663 (2009)
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Abstract

This article discusses new material, published in volume 12 of the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, that addresses Einstein’s knowledge of the Michelson–Morley experiment prior to 1905: in a lecture in Chicago in 1921, Einstein referred to the experiment, mentioned when he came upon it and hinted at its influence. Arguments are presented to explain the contrast with Einstein’s later pronouncements on the role of the experiment.

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10.1007/s00407-009-0050-5

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Citations of this work

Einstein's reinterpretation of the Fizeau experiment: How it turned out to be crucial for special relativity.Alejandro Cassini & Marcelo Leonardo Levinas - 2019 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 65 (C):55-72.
Can we trust Einstein’s accounts of the genesis of special relativity?Olivier Darrigol - 2021 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 89 (C):138-154.

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References found in this work

`Nature is the Realisation of the Simplest Conceivable Mathematical Ideas': Einstein and the Canon of Mathematical Simplicity.John D. Norton - 2000 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 31 (2):135-170.
Einstein's attitude towards experiments: Testing relativity theory 1907–1927.Klaus Hentschel - 1991 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 23 (4):593-624.

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