What was the meaning of Michelson and Morley’s experimental findings; the “greatest failed experiment of all time”?

RELATIVITY ACTIVITY
In this activity, you will watch a video about General Relativity. You will answers based on the
information in the video, and connect this information with topics in the text. You will be graded
on
 The thoroughness and clarity of your answers,
 Your ability to correctly identify factual information from the resources, and
 Your ability to critically analyze information from different sources to make analyses and
predictions.
Watch Special Relativity Simplified with no Math at https://youtu.be/ZAf7FXih-Jc . Answer the
following questions.
1. Previous to the Michelson-Morley experiment, what was the name of the medium light
was presumed to travel through?
a.
2. What was the meaning of Michelson and Morley’s experimental findings; the “greatest
failed experiment of all time”?
a.
3. What was James Clerk Maxwell’s discovery?
a.
4. What were Einstein’s first two postulates of relativity?
a.
5. Einstein had an epiphany that allowed him to solve the paradox of the observer on the
train (an observer in a moving reference frame). What was the “revolution”?
a.
6. If Einstein’s revolutionary idea was true, what two things must be true of a moving
object?
a.
7. What is the most famous equation in physics? What does it mean?
a.
8. Who developed that math that described time dilation and simultaneity of moving
objects?
a.
Watch General Relativity Explained Simply and Visually at https://youtu.be/tzQC3uYL67U.
Answer the following questions.
1. What was the reaction to Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity in 1905?
a.
2. Why was Einstein not satisfied with the Theory of Special Relativity?
a.
3. What thought experiment inspired Einstein to begin forming the General Theory of
Relativity?
a.
4. How could a person in a spaceship with no windows tell if they were accelerating?
a.
5. What is the shortest path between two points in normal physics? What is the shortest path
in Einstein’s theory?
a.
6. What happens to space in the presence of mass or energy?
a.
7. How did Jon Wheeler explain General Relativity?
a.
8. What effect on a planet’s orbit could not be explained using Newton’s theories, but could
be with Einstein’s?
a.
9. Describe the observation that gave support to Einstein’s theory.
a.
10. What happens to time in curved space?
a.
11. How is General Relativity used to make GPS accurate?
a.
12. What two theories remain incompatible, especially regarding the singularity of a black
hole?
a.

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