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What I've read on the Michelson/Morley experiment explains that it made the idea of the luminiferous aether seem less likely, but I don't think I've ever seen an explanation of why everyone didn't just assume that light follows normal Newtonian relativity. What I mean is this: according to Maxwell's equations, EM radiation is just propagating electric and magnetic fields. Those fields begin with an object that is moving at some velocity, v, with respect to the observer. Each induced field will be moving at the same relative velocity, so that the measured speed of the EM radiation will be c + v.
If this were the case, then you would expect the speed of light to be measured the same in all directions, regardless of the Earth's movement through space, and there would be no need for the Lorentz transformations. Can anyone tell me how this interpretation was ruled out?
If this were the case, then you would expect the speed of light to be measured the same in all directions, regardless of the Earth's movement through space, and there would be no need for the Lorentz transformations. Can anyone tell me how this interpretation was ruled out?