Page:Light waves and their uses.djvu/74

56 37, p. 39). If we measure the couple producing the twist, and the number of fringes which pass by, we can find the corresponding angle of twist, and a simple calculation gives us the measure of our coefficient of rigidity.

The interferometer in this second form has also been applied to the balance. Fig. 52 shows such an arrangement. The mirrors of the interferometer are on the upright metal plate, the two movable mirrors being fastened to the ends of the arms of a balance which is just visible within the horizontal box. The object of this particular experiment was to determine the constant of gravitation; in other words, to find the amount of attraction which a sphere of lead exerted on a small sphere hung on an arm of the balance. The amount of this attraction, when the two spheres are as close together as possible, is proportional to the diameter of the large sphere, which was something like eight inches. The attraction on the small ball on the end of the balance was thus the same fraction of its weight as the diameter of the large ball was of the diameter of the earth, i. e., something like one twenty-millionth. So the force to be measured was one twenty-millionth of the weight