Experiments Paving The Way To Relativity
The predominant theory of light in the 19th century was that of the luminiferous aether, a stationary medium in which light propagates in a manner analogous to the way sound propagates through air. By analogy, it follows that the speed of light is constant in all directions in the aether and is independent of the velocity of the source. Thus an observer moving relative to the aether must measure some sort of "aether wind" even as an observer moving relative to air measures an apparent wind.
Read more about this topic: Tests Of Special Relativity
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