Page:Light waves and their uses.djvu/175

Rh length of path is greater in the first case than in the second.

We can easily appreciate the fact that the time is greater in this case, by considering a man rowing in a boat, first in a smooth pond and then in a river. If he rows at the rate of four miles an hour, for example, and the distance between the stations is twelve miles, then it would take him three hours to pull there and three to pull back—six hours in all. This is his time when there is no current. If there is a current, suppose at the rate of one mile an hour, then the time it would take to go from one point to the other, would be, not 12 divided by 4, but 12 divided by 4 + 1, i. e., 2.4 hours. In coming back the time would be 12 divided by 4 − 1, which would be 4 hours, and this added to the other time equals 6.4 instead of 6 hours. It takes him longer, then, to pass back and forth when the medium is in motion than when the medium is at rest. We can understand, then, that it would take light longer to travel back and forth in the direction of the motion of the earth. The difference in the times is, however, so exceedingly small, being of the order of 1 in 100,000,000, that Maxwell considered it practically hopeless to attempt to detect it.

In spite of this apparently hopeless smallness of the quantities to be observed, it was thought that the minuteness of the light waves might again come to our rescue. As a matter of fact, an experiment was devised for detecting this small quantity. The conditions which the apparatus must fulfil are rather complex. The total distance traveled must be as great as possible, something of the order of one hundred million waves, for example. Another condition requires that we be able to interchange the direction without altering the adjustment by even the one hundredth-millionth part. Further, the apparatus must be absolutely free from vibration.