The Michelson-Morely experiment is actually nothing but an experiment of conceptual errors.
It was concluded there was no aether because of an incorrect belief in what the Michelson-Morley experiment showed. The only thing it actually showed was how easily people are fooled by incorrect conceptions. How they (and people still) failed to see that their viewpoint from outside the system being measured was flawed from the beginning.
The Michelson-Morley experiment is the biggest overlooked conceptual error of all time.
You, the observer looking at the illustration or device, are outside the illustration or device, and the illustration or device is moving with regard to you.
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Feynman said: “Let us calculate the time required for the light to go to E and back. Let us say that the time for light to go from plate B to the mirror E is t1 and the time for the return is t2. While the light is on its way from B to the mirror [E], the apparatus moves a distance ut1, so light must traverse a distance of L+ut1 at the speed of c.”
Well, from your eyeballs’ point of view, looking at the illustration or device, yes. But from the point of view of the device, no. We conceptionally see the device moving, and therefore we see the extra distance ut1. But the device does not see itself moving. It has no velocity relative to itself. No object can calculate itself as moving in its own co-ordinate system. Any observer attached to the device or moving along with the device will see or measure the distance L. Period. Only an observer outside the local system would see the distance L+ut1. The device is inside its local system. The device cannot hope to measure any extra distance, or to find a phase difference at the end.
The entire experiment is founded on a conceptual error of the greatest import. The device is not moving relative to itself. There can be no phase shift because the device will never measure any distance but that of L. It will never measure the extra distance of ut1. No phase shift could ever be produced.
No system sees itself in motion. Only an outside observer would ever see the extra distance of ut1.
Just as if we built the device on the surface of the earth and spun the earth (oh wait, we already have) only an outside observer (off planet) would see the extra distance light must travel [ut1], while we (moving with the device) see it as stationary. The outside observer would expect a phase shift, while we on the earth would not. The experiment would measure the distance L and no phase shift would occurr to the astonishment of the outside observer.
The Michelson-Morley experiment is nothing but a conceptual error of profound proportions. So no experiment has shown the aether does not exist, but one of profound conceptual mistakes. So there was never any valid reason to begin with to conclude no aether existed. Just the incorrect conceptual errors of close to 130 years.
