Word: michelson
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These two medals are awarded annually to scientists who have done something of importance to the scientific world, and they have been given in the past to such men as Thomas A. Edison, Professor R. A. Millikan, Professor A. A. Michelson, Professor Gilbert Lewis, and Dr. J. McKeen Cattell. The basis of the awarding of the medals is the report of a jury of distinguished American scientists as to the men most deserving under the purpose of the award...
...invented the interferometre by which in the Michelson-Morley experiment of 1887 he split a ray of light in two and raced the fractions against each other. This single experiment disproved the theory of a drifting ether, broke down old scientific philosophy, triggered off Einstein's study of relativity, created a new conception of time, space, motion of reality itself...
Last week Dr. Michelson started his latest machinery. A ray of light shuttled through the tube for a course of 44 mi. It was a swift flash, less than 1-4,000th of a second in duration, was mechanically clocked with minute precision. Again Dr. Michelson made the light flit; and again. Repetitions, which must be averaged, will take weeks. Dr. Michelson waved goodbye to his assistants, motored to the comforts of his home in Pasadena...
...Michelson's favorite self-description: "A sailor degenerated into a college professor...
...international basis of scientific measurement is an iridio-platinum bar cut by two scratches one metre apart, preserved, guarded carefully at Paris, but subject some day to possible destruction. Dr. Michelson measured the bar against the wavelength of red cadmium light, forever unchangeable...