Galactic Wind Compass
A
single laser, via beam splitter, produces interference fringes which are
then detected by a photo transistor, which then turns a bicycle wheel in
the opposite directed to the earth's rotation, upon which the laser assembly
is mounted.
The
wheel is adjusted to rotate slightly faster than the earth, causing the
assembly to get ahead. When this happens, the fringe count decreases,
stalling the bicycle wheel and laser assembly affixed, thus allowing the
earth to catch up, repeating the process again and again, like a thoughtless
machine, which it is, making it all that more fun and better!
A great school science fair project turning in sidereal time without any clockwork mechanism and an educational tool demonstrating the presence of galactic wind.
Unlike
gyroscopic mechanisms, like those used in navigation, the Galactic Wind
Compass is non inertial
Here's how
it works.
Ether wind
passing through the laboratory at about 600 miles per second--as it is
drawn towards the galactic center-- is detected as a movement of fringes
on a photo transistor placed at the location of interference patterns of
a right angle interferometer.
The photocell's
output is amplified to open and close a standard 12 volt automotive relay.
Capacitors are placed in the circuit to serve as a Schottky trigger.
This smoothed
out signal then drives another relay, turning on a motor circuit.
The motor turns at a very slow 5 RPM, and has a cam, which briefly closes
on each revolution; serving as what would be equivalent to a TTL
divider circuit.
I thought
about doing all this with logic chips, but everyone loves the sights and
sounds of clicking relays and LEDs. Besides, I just didn't want to
have to deal with regulated 5 volts; 12 volts being so wonderfully
automotive. And as it stand, it would make a great conversation piece
for Richard Branson's space headquarters foyer at Virgin Galactic, Mojave.
I also thought
that if I went the way of computer logic, a lot of diehard relativists
might think that something sneaky might be going.
Anyway, this
cam signal activates another relay serving as a "one shot" in the event
the cam stops in the ON
position, which would not be good at all.
This signal
is then delivered to a motor driving a bicycle wheel, that is remotely
stationed on the south wall of the lab, so as the earth spins eastward,
the bicycle wheel is driven clockwise to the west, in the attempt to hold
it steady to the celestial sphere.
The motor
driving the rim of the bicycle wheel is another 5 RPM motor. It is
a 12 volt automotive windshield wiper motor attainable in any junkyard,
along with the relays. The motor is non synchronous, and does not
provide any sidereal clocking mechanism, making the apparatus even more
convincing to the post classical physicist of a century gone by.
Scientific
American take note, this would make a good contribution to you Amateur
Astronomer section.
All of this
is achieved by counting laser fringes. Here's how that works.
The laser
right angle interferometer is situated on the rim and spokes of the bicycle
wheel, turning slowly with the wheel. Circuits are led into the wheel
hub via a rotary connector handling three circuits: (1) laser
3 volt power, (2) 12 volt photo transistor collector output, and (3) common
ground to both.
When the interferometer
is turned such that both right angle laser beams (derived by using a cube
beam splitter) are at equal angles (45o) to the galactic center,
there is very little drifting of the interference fringes, thus the wheel
may not turn at all, in which case it, if ahead of the galactic center,
the center will move into alignment to one of the beam legs. (Illustration
below and left.)
When this
happens, photons from the laser will take longer to travel down and back
this leg (Y), relative to the photons traveling at right angles to the
ether wind, increasing the fringe drift and driving the motor (at its fixed
5 RPM speed) more frequently, so that it continually paces itself to the
earth's rotation.
Why does this
happen?
Photons travel
in both speed and direction relative to the ether, so that if photons are
traveling against and with the motion of the ether, they will always take
longer to make a round trip than if the ether were at rest.
In the illustration to the left, leg Y is in line with the galactic center
and leg X is crosswind, so-to-speak. Photons traveling along X, both
directions, will experience no appreciable variation in transit time;
in this sense X becomes a standard reference, not a null rest standard
though, since the ether is streaming by at a very high rate of speed towards
the galactic center.
The ether
wind compass does not know if any of this is happening, only that there
is a more rapid fringe change in time, turning the photo transistor on
and off as the light and dark interference fringes move past its face,
measuring about one tenth a millimeter square.
The interference
fringes are the result of a common or coherent light source reemerging
after being recombined through the beam splitter.
I find the
green laser light easier to see and thus to work with, though most photo
transistors op for the red and infra red. If your lacking response
power with the collector output, rather than going berserk looking for
a better match, you might want to use a green enhanced beam splitter cube
from Edmund Optical, to compensate for this frequency mismatch.
References:
Albert
Einstein
Michelson-Morley
Experiment
The
Aberration of Starlight without the necessity of Relativistic Consideration
LUMINIFEROUS
ETHER
Luminiferous
Ether by Joel Webb
HOW
RELATIVITY WORKS