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Timeline of special relativity and the speed of light

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Albert Einstein and Hendrik Lorentz in 1921 in Leiden

This timeline describes the major developments, both experimental and theoretical, of:

This list also mentions the origins of standard notation (like c) and terminology (like theory of relavity).

Criteria for inclusion

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Task Force One, the world's first nuclear-powered task force. Enterprise, Long Beach and Bainbridge in formation in the Mediterranean, 18 June 1964. Enterprise crew members are spelling out Einstein's mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2 on the flight deck.

Theories other than SR are not described here exhaustively, but only to the extent that is directly relevant to SR – i.e. at points when they:

  • anticipated some elements of SR, like Fresnel’s hypothesis of partial aether drag,
  • led to new experiments testing SR, like Stokes’s model of complete aether drag,
  • were disproved or questioned, e.g. by the experiments of Oliver Lodge.

For a more detailed timeline of aether theories – e.g. their emergence with the wave theory of light – see a separate article. Also, not all experiments are listed here – repetitions, even with much higher precision than the original, are mentioned only if they influence or challenge the opinions at their time. It was the case with:

  • Michelson and Morley (1886) repeating the experiment of Fizeau (1851), contradicting Michelson’s interpretation of his 1881 experiment;
  • Michelson–Morley (1887), more conclusive than the original experiment by Michelson (1881) and difficult to reconcile with their experiment of 1886, or other first-order measurements;
  • Kaufmann’s 1906 repetition of his 1902 experiment, because he claimed to contradict the model of Einstein and Lorentz, considered consistent with the data from 1902;
  • Miller (1933) or Marinov (1974), with results different than Michelson–Morley.

For lists of repetitions, see the articles of particular experiments. The measurements of speed of light are also mentioned only to the minimum extent, i.e. when they proved for the first time that c is finite and invariant. Innovations like the use of Foucault's rotating mirror or the Fizeau wheel are not listed here – see the article about speed of light.

This timeline also ignores, for reasons of volume and clarity:

Before the 19th century

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A redrawn version of the illustration from the 1676 news report. Rømer compared the apparent duration of Io's orbits as Earth moved towards Jupiter (F to G) and as Earth moved away from Jupiter (L to K).
  • 1632 – Galileo Galilei writes about the relativity of motion and that some forms of motion are undetectable; this would be later called the relativity principle, essential for special relativity as one of its postulates.
  • 1674 – Robert Hooke makes his observations of the Gamma Draconis star, or γ Draconis for short. He proves a variation in its position on the sky, which would be later identified as stellar aberration.[1]
  • 1676 – Ole Rømer gives the first piece of evidence that the speed of light is finite, through his observation of the moons of Jupiter;[2] the discovery divides scientists of his time.[3]
  • 1690 – Christiaan Huygens gives the first estimate of the speed of light in air or vacuum, based on Rømer’s work. The result is equivalent to about 2×108 m/s in modern units, correct only to the order of magnitude.
  • 1727 – James Bradley correctly identifies the peculiar behaviour of γ Draconis as stellar aberration. Bradley uses this fact to estimate the speed of light in air or vacuum, and his result is more accurate than Huygens’s: about 3.0×108 m/s in modern units. For the first time, the measurement is correct to the first two significant figures.

19th century

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Before 1880s

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1880s

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Michelson and Morley's interferometric setup, mounted on a stone slab that floats in an annular trough of mercury

1890s

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  • 1892 – Hendrik Lorentz – independently of FitzGerald – proposes the same explanation, with a formula only approximating the special-relativistic length contraction to the first order.
  • 1893 – Oliver Lodge makes an interferometric experiment questioning the aether drag hypothesis.
  • 1894 – Paul Drude introduces the symbol c for speed of light in vacuum.
  • 1895 – Hendrik Lorentz corrects his 1892 model, proposing a contraction by the Lorentz factor (γ).
  • 1895 – Albert Einstein probably makes his thought experiment about chasing a light beam, later relevant to his work on special relativity.
  • 1897 – Oliver Lodge publishes another experimental result questioning aether drag.
  • 1897 – Joseph Larmor publishes his coordinate transformations extending the length contraction formula. These transformations imply a form of time dilation and were an approximation of the full Lorentz transformations.
  • 1898 – Henri Poincaré states that simultaneity is relative.
  • 1899 – Hendrik Antoon Lorentz publishes an early version of his coordinate transformations, including the local time.

20th century

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Hermann Minkowski, who introduced the spacetime formalism to special relativity in 1908.

1900s

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  • 1902 – Lord Rayleigh writes that Lorentz’s hypothesis of length contraction predicts a form of birefringence and tries to observe it.[14] The null result questions Lorentz’s model, but it would be later explained by a combination of length contraction and time dilation.
  • 1902 – Max Abraham develops his classical model of the electron. It anticipated some elements of special relativity like the non-linear dependence of momentum on velocity – or, in other, more debatable terms, the relativistic mass. However, Abraham’s formula was different than in SR or in Lorentz’s theory.
  • 1902 – Walter Kaufmann publishes his measurements of how the electron’s momentum – or, using later terms, its relativistic mass – depends on its speed. The results seem to confirm Abraham’s model.
  • 1903 – Olinto De Pretto presents his aether theory with some form of mass–energy equivalence.[15] It was described by a formula looking like Einstein’s E = mc2, but with different meanings of the terms.
  • 1903 – Frederick Thomas Trouton and H.R. Noble publish the results of their experiment with capacitors, showing no aether drift.[16][17]
  • 1904 – DeWitt Bristol Brace conducts an improved version of Rayleigh’s 1902 experiment, again with null result.[18]
  • 1904 – Hendrik Lorentz explains the experimental results of Rayleigh, Brace, Trouton and Noble, using his refined coordinate transformations; he also proves that Maxwell’s equations are invariant under them. Lorentz also presents his own classical model of the electron, including the length contraction absent in the work of Abraham – but consistent with Kaufmann’s data so far.
  • 1904 – Alfred Bucherer and Paul Langevin independently publish a model of the electron and its mass increasing with speed, in a way different both from Abraham’s and Lorentz’s theories. This hypothesis was also consistent with Kaufmann’s results at that stage.
  • 1904 – Henri Poincaré presents the principle of relativity for electromagnetism.
  • 1905 – Poincaré introduces the name Lorentz transformations and is the first to present them in their full form that would be later present in Einstein’s special relativity proper. Also, Poincaré is the first to describe the relativistic velocity-addition formula – implicitly in his publication and explicitly in his letter to Lorentz.
  • 1905Albert Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity, including the mass–energy equivalence that would be later written as E = mc2.
  • 1906 – Alfred Bucherer introduces the name theory of relativity, based on Max Planck’s term relative theory.
  • 1906 – Walter Kaufmann publishes his new measurements of the mass–velocity dependence, and claims to disprove the formula of Lorentz and Einstein. At the same time, he accepts that both the old model of Abraham (1902) and the later model of Bucherer & Langevin (1904) are consistent with the data.
  • 1907 – Max Von Laue describes how the relativistic velocity-addition formula recreates the Fresnel drag coefficients.
  • 1908 – Hermann Minkowski publishes his spacetime formalism of special relativity.
  • 1908 – Frederick Thomas Trouton and Alexander Rankine conduct an experiment with electric circuit, proving that the length contraction is not the only relativistic effect and some form of time dilation is present – similarly to the previous experiments by Rayleigh (1902) and Brace (1904).[19]
  • 1908 – Walther Ritz publishes his ballistic theory of light as an alternative to special relativity and Maxwell’s electrodynamics.[20]
  • 1909 – Paul Ehrenfest publishes the Ehrenfest paradox about rigidity in special relativity.[21]
  • 1909 – Gilbert N. Lewis and Richard Tolman coin the disputed term relativistic mass.

1910s

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Schematic representation of a Sagnac interferometer.

1920s and 1930s

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After 1930s

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21st century

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See also

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References

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  1. ^  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainEppenstein, Otto (1911). "Aberration". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). pp. 54–61.
  2. ^ Rømer, Ole (30 September 1677), "Lettre Nº 2104", in Bosscha, J. (ed.), Œuvres complètes de Christiaan Huygens (1888–1950). Tome VIII: Correspondance 1676–1684, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff (published 1899), pp. 32–35. (in Latin)
  3. ^ Wróblewski, Andrzej (1985), "de Mora Luminis: A spectacle in two acts with a prologue and an epilogue", Am. J. Phys., 53 (7): 620–30, Bibcode:1985AmJPh..53..620W, doi:10.1119/1.14270
  4. ^ Arago, A. (1810–1853), "Mémoire sur la vitesse de la lumière, lu à la prémière classe de l'Institut, le 10 décembre 1810", Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, 36: 38–49
  5. ^ Fresnel, A. (1818), "Lettre de M. Fresnel à M. Arago sur l'influence du mouvement terrestre dans quelques phénomènes d'optique", Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 9: 57–66 (Sep. 1818), 286–7 (Nov. 1818); reprinted in H. de Senarmont, E. Verdet, and L. Fresnel (eds.), Oeuvres complètes d'Augustin Fresnel, vol. 2 (1868), pp. 627–36; translated as "Letter from Augustin Fresnel to François Arago, on the influence of the movement of the earth on some phenomena of optics" in K.F. Schaffner, Nineteenth-Century Aether Theories, Pergamon, 1972 (doi:10.1016/C2013-0-02335-3), pp. 125–35; also translated (with several errors) by R.R. Traill as "Letter from Augustin Fresnel to François Arago concerning the influence of terrestrial movement on several optical phenomena", General Science Journal, 23 January 2006 (PDF, 8 pp.).
  6. ^ Stokes, George Gabriel (1845), "On the Aberration of Light" , Philosophical Magazine, 27 (177): 9–15, doi:10.1080/14786444508645215
  7. ^ Fizeau, H. (1851). "Sur les hypothèses relatives à l'éther lumineux". Comptes Rendus. 33: 349–355.
    English: Fizeau, H. (1851). "The Hypotheses Relating to the Luminous Aether, and an Experiment which Appears to Demonstrate that the Motion of Bodies Alters the Velocity with which Light Propagates itself in their Interior" . Philosophical Magazine. 2: 568–573.
  8. ^ Hoek, M. (1868). "Determination de la vitesse avec laquelle est entrainée une onde lumineuse traversant un milieu en mouvement" . Verslagen en Mededeelingen. 2: 189–194.
  9. ^ Airy, G.B. (1871). "On the Supposed Alteration in the Amount of Astronomical Aberration of Light, Produced by the Passage of the Light through a Considerable Thickness of Refracting Medium". Proceedings of the Royal Society. 20 (130–138): 35–39. Bibcode:1871RSPS...20...35A. doi:10.1098/rspl.1871.0011. Archived from the original on 2012-05-15.
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  12. ^ Lange, L. (1885). "Über das Beharrungsgesetz. Berichte über Verhandlungen der Königlich Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften". Mathematisch-physikalische Klasse. Leipzig: 333–351.
  13. ^ Voigt, W. (1887), "Ueber das Doppler'sche Princip (On the Principle of Doppler)", Göttinger Nachrichten (7): 41–51; Reprinted with additional comments by Voigt in Physikalische Zeitschrift XVI, 381–386 (1915).
  14. ^ Lord Rayleigh (1902). "Does Motion through the Aether cause Double Refraction?" . Philosophical Magazine. 4: 678–683. doi:10.1080/14786440209462891.
  15. ^ Olinto De Pretto (1903). "Ipotesi dell'etere nella vita dell'universo (Hypothesis of Aether in the Life of the Universe)". "Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti" (The Royal Veneto Institute of Science, Letters and Arts). LXIII (II): 439–500. (Accepted November 23, 1903 and printed February 27, 1904.)
  16. ^ F. T. Trouton and H. R. Noble, "The mechanical forces acting on a charged electric condenser moving through space," Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. A 202, 165–181 (1903).
  17. ^ F. T. Trouton and H. R. Noble, "The Forces Acting on a Charged Condenser moving through Space. Proc. R. Soc. 74 (479): 132-133 (1903).
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  19. ^ Trouton F. T., Rankine A. (1908). "On the electrical resistance of moving matter". Proc. R. Soc. 80 (420): 420–435. Bibcode:1908RSPSA..80..420T. doi:10.1098/rspa.1908.0037. JSTOR 19080525.
  20. ^ Ritz, Walther (1908). "Recherches critiques sur l'Électrodynamique générale". Annales de Chimie et de Physique. 13: 145–275. Bibcode:1908AChPh..13..145R.
  21. ^ Ehrenfest, Paul (1909), "Gleichförmige Rotation starrer Körper und Relativitätstheorie"  [Uniform Rotation of Rigid Bodies and the Theory of Relativity], Physikalische Zeitschrift (in German), 10: 918, Bibcode:1909PhyZ...10..918E
  22. ^ Ignatowsky, W. v. (1910b). "Einige allgemeine Bemerkungen über das Relativitätsprinzip" . Physikalische Zeitschrift. 11: 972–976.
  23. ^ E. T. Whittaker (1910) A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity, page 441.
  24. ^ Vladimir Varicak (1910) Application of Lobachevskian Geometry in the Theory of Relativity Physikalische Zeitschrift via Wikisource
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Further reading

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