How Luminiferous Aether Led to Relativity

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As the 19th century came to a close, physicists were feeling pretty satisfied with the state of their science. The great edifice of physical theory seemed complete. A few minor experiments remained to verify everything. Little did those physicists know that one of those experiments would bring the entire structure crashing down paving the way for the physics revolution of the 20th century.

Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Sarah Wells & Matt O'Dowd Graphics by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, & Pedro Osinski Directed by: Andrew Kornhaber Camera Operator: Bahaar Gholipour Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber

End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRl6-nb4iOnsij-vnpAjp0Q

#space #astrophysics #sciencehistory

A Special Note from writer Sarah Wells:

Sarah Wells would like to dedicate the writing and inspiration for this episode to Louis Colonna-Romano, a Clark University physics instructor who told the story of Albert Michelson's fantastic "failure" to generations of physics freshmen. Lou's kind mentorship and infectious enthusiasm for physics inspired every student who came into his office, including this video's writer.

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