Starship Asterisk*

[quote="dougettinger"]This must truly be a stupid question,Neufer. What does the value of "n" stand for in the Fizeau interferomenter equation ?[/quote]
You really need to work on your quoting!

The value [i]n[/i] represents the index of refraction of a medium, which is the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed of light in the medium.

[quote="neufer"][quote="hairnet"]I was wondering on the difference between a michelson type interferometer and a fizeau type. Not many books go to the trouble of really comparing them or considering them for the same task even... and this makes trying to figure out why two designs exist in the first place a bit tricky![/quote]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson_interferometer]The Michelson interferometer[/url] & [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fizeau%E2%80%93Foucault_apparatus]the Fizeau interferometer[/url] were both instrumental in Einstein's thinking about relativity.[/quote]
This must truly be a stupid question,Neufer. What does the value of "n" stand for in the Fizeau interferomenter equation ?

[quote="hairnet"]

I was wondering on the difference between a michelson type interferometer and a fizeau type. Not many books go to the trouble of really comparing them or considering them for the same task even... and this makes trying to figure out why two designs exist in the first place a bit tricky![/quote]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson_interferometer]The Michelson interferometer[/url] & [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fizeau%E2%80%93Foucault_apparatus]the Fizeau interferometer[/url] were both instrumental in Einstein's thinking about relativity.

[float=right][img3="Fizeau interferometer for measuring the effect
of water movement upon the speed of light.

[size=150][color=#0000FF]Fringe shift expected: [/color] [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/c/4/c/c4c20a6fa9a9ac1312e5eb927ab9753a.png[/img]

[color=#FF0000]Fringe shift measured:[/color] [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/b/8/a/b8a81ab3a5b5b99e014d2ab3f729e521.png[/img]"]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Fizeau_interferometer.JPG[/img3][/size][/float][img3="Michelson interferometer for measuring the effect
of "aether" movement upon the speed of light.
[size=150][color=#0000FF]Fringe shift expected: 0.4[/color]
[color=#FF0000]Fringe shift measured: < 0.01[/color][/size]"]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Interferometer.svg/500px-Interferometer.svg.png[/img3]

The Wikipedia page [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_types_of_interferometers]List of types of interferometers[/url] lists over 50 kinds, including the two you mention, each of which has a page of its own. That may help you figure out what's what.

Rob

Hello Guys, first post so please forgive any breaches of etiquette!

I was wondering on the difference between a michelson type interferometer and a fizeau type. Not many books go to the trouble of really comparing them or considering them for the same task even... and this makes trying to figure out why two designs exist in the first place a bit tricky!

cheers for any help