Author(s)

Ioan Has¹, Simona Miclaus¹, Aurelian Has²

¹Land Forces Academy, Sibiu, Rm. Valcea, Romania.
²Independent Researcher, Rm. Valcea, Romania.

The article initially reviews various works describing the physical model (PM) of Michelson’s interferometric experiment (ME), represented by the race between two swimmers Sw1, Sw2 (or boats, or planes, or sound signals, etc.). The two swimmers must each swim the same distance, but Sw1 will swim along the river flow, and Sw2 will swim perpendicularly to this direction. In all such works, it is considered that Sw2’s path will require less time and that it will reach the start point first. However, in this work, it has been determined that in order to make this possible, Sw2 must not observe the orthogonality rule of his start direction. This action would be deceitful to the arbiters and thus considered as non-fair-play towards Sw1. The article proves by swimming times calculus, that if the fair-play rules are observed, then the correct crosswise path (in water reference frame) is a right triangle instead of the isosceles triangle considered by Michelson. Consequently, the two times shall be perfectly equal and the race ends in a tie, and the myth of Sw2 as the race winner shall be debunked. Note that the same result shall also be applicable to Michelson’s interferometric experiment (ME) as well as to any similar experiment. Therefore, utilising the isosceles triangle as the transversal path in PM and also in ME is an erroneous act.

Michelson Experiment, Two Swimmers Model, Swimming Times Calculation, Right Triangle Correct Transversal Path, Error of Isosceles Triangle for Transversal Path

Has, I. , Miclaus, S. and Has, A. (2018) A Reanalysis of the Two Swimmers Problem, as Frequent Model of Michelson’s Interferometric Experiment Demonstrating that Transversal Path Is Not an Isosceles but a Right Triangle and the Race Will End in a Tie. Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics, 6, 1507-1521. doi: 10.4236/jamp.2018.67127.