Michelson, Albert Abraham

Michelson, pronounced MY kuhl suhn, Albert Abraham (1852-1931), was the first American citizen to win a Nobel Prize in science. He received the 1907 Nobel Prize in physics for his design of precise optical instruments and for the accurate measurements he obtained with them.

Michelson was born in Strzelno, Poland (then in the domain of Prussia), near Inowroclaw. His family emigrated to the United States when he was 2. In 1873, Michelson graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy.

In 1880, while studying in Germany, Michelson designed an instrument to measure the speed of the earth through the ether. At that time, scientists believed that all space was filled with a stationary substance, which they called ether. They thought that light must travel in such a substance as ether in order to travel through space. Michelson's instrument, now known as the Michelson interferometer, compares the speed of a light beam moving in one direction with that of a beam moving at a right angle to it. By measuring the interference of the two light beams, Michelson believed he could find the velocity of the earth through the ether. He determined from the interference pattern actually produced that the speed of the earth in relation to the ether was zero. In 1887, Michelson refined this experiment with the aid of Edward Morley, an American chemist and physicist. The result was the same as before. Michelson and Morley's experiment helped destroy the ether theory (see Ether).

Michelson resigned his naval commission in 1881. He taught physics at the University of Chicago for most of his career.

Contributor: Richard L. Hilt, Ph.D., Prof., Department of Physics, Colorado College.

Michelson, Albert Abraham

Master Index