BECKMANN-MANDICS CLOSED PATH EXPERIMENT

Es folgt eine weitere Fortsetzung von Kapitel 4 (Chapter 4) aus dem Buch von
Professor Wallace Kantor „Relativistic Propagation of Light“.  

Zitat:

BECKMANN-MANDICS CLOSED PATH EXPERIMENT

Light reflected from a rotating mirror was used in the related Beckmann-Mandics (1964) [13] experiment shown in Fig. 4. The experiment was done in air. Some of the apparatus (mirrors and mirror mounts) in this experiment can be recognized from photographs as that used in the Kantor [10] experiment. Except for differences in mechanical Implementation, the experiment is essentially the same in concept as the Kantor experiment with one notable exception. Instead of stroboscopic microsecond light flashes admitted at the moments when the rotating Windows W were normal to the light path, Beckmann caused light to be reflected from a rotating mirror RM mounted at the axis of rotation of the Windows.

It was stated that „if the rotor was off the perpendicular position by more than 0.5°, the chopping mirror RM diverted the incoming ray from its path into the interferometer and nothing could be seen in the telescope.“ An opportunity to witness the experiment was provided this author and the intense laser light was seen for nearly 360° rotation due to its reflection not only from the RM mirror surface but also, and with seemingly comparable intensity, by diffuse reflection, from the smooth and unpainted side and back surfaces of its aluminum mount.

It was stated that „a zero fringe (uniform illumination throughout the field of view) was obtained and the beam splitter BS was then very slightly rotated about its vertical axis, thus very slightly displacing the reflected from the transmitted loop and giving rise to low-order fringes.“ The surveyor’s telescope used in this experiment to view the fringes was fitted internally with a rotatable optically flat glass plate. The calibrated external dial whereby this image-displacing plate could be rotated is visible in one of the photographs that shows the telescope. It was demonstrable that the fringes produced by Beckmann were dependent on the angular position of the image-displacing plate. The fringes from the internal reflections in the plate were mistakenly assumed to be interferometer fringes.

The rotating Windows when viewed in collimated light exhibited many nonlinear fringes across their one-centimeter dimension indicating poor optical form and variable thickness especially near an edge.

(Zitatende)

Die Fig. 4 und den weiteren Text finden Sie hier!

Beste Grüße Ekkehard Friebe