On the relative motion of the earth and the luminiferous æther

by Albert A. Michelson; Edward Williams Morley

	9.	10.	11.	12.	13.	14.	15.	16.
July 8	26.2	23.8	23.2	20.3	18.7	17.5	16.8	13.7
July 9	63.3	65.8	67.3	69.7	70.7	73.0	70.2	72.2
July 11	14.3	13.3	12.8	13.3	12.3	10.2	7.3	6.5
Mean	34.6	34.3	34.4	34.4	33.9	33.6	31.4	30.8
Mean in w. l.	.692	.686	.688	.688	.678	.672	.628	.616
Final mean	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...

P.M. OBSERVATIONS.

	16.	1.	2.	3.	4.	5.	6.	7.	8.
July 8	61.2	63.3	63.3	68.2	67.7	69.3	70.3	69.8	69.0
July 9	26.0	26.0	28.2	29.2	31.5	32.0	31.3	31.7	33.0
July 12	66.8	66.5	66.0	64.3	62.2	61.0	61.3	59.7	58.2
Mean	51.3	51.9	52.5	53.9	53.8	54.1	54.3	53.7	53.4
Mean in w. l.	1.026	1.038	1.050	1.078	1.076	1.082	1.086	1.074	1.068
	1.068	1.086	1.076	1.084	1.100	1.136	1.144	1.154	1.172
Final mean	1.047	1.062	1.063	1.081	1.088	1.109	1.115	1.114	1.120

	9.	10.	11.	12.	13.	14.	15.	16.
July 8	71.3	71.3	70.5	71.2	71.2	70.5	72.5	75.7
July 9	35.8	36.5	37.3	38.8	41.0	42.7	43.7	44.0
July 12	55.7	53.7	54.7	55.0	58.2	58.5	57.0	56.0
Mean	54.3	53.8	54.2	55.0	56.8	57.2	57.7	58.6
Mean in w. l.	1.086	1.076	1.084	1.100	1.136	1.144	1.154	1.172
Final mean	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...

The results of the observations are expressed graphically in fig. 6.

Fig. 6.

The upper is the curve for the observations at noon, and the lower that for the evening observations. The dotted curves represent one eighth of the theoretical displacements. It seems fair to conclude from the figure that if there is any displacement due to the relative motion of the earth and the luminiferous æther, this cannot be much greater than