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Dayton Clarence Miller (March 13, 1866 - February 22, 1941) was an American physicist, astronomer, acoustician, and accomplished amateur flutist. Image File history File links Stop_hand. ... March 13 is the 72nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (73rd in leap years). ... 1866 (MDCCCLXVI) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... February 22 is the 53rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1941 calendar). ... A physicist is a scientist trained in physics. ... An astronomer or astrophysicist is a scientist whose area of research is astronomy or astrophysics. ... Acoustics is a branch of physics and is the study of sound, mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids. ... A flutist demonstrates flute-playing technique A flutist or flautist is a musician who plays the flute. ...

Biography

Miller obtained a doctorate in astronomy at Princeton University under Charles A. Young. In 1890, he worked at the Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland, Ohio teaching astronomy, later becoming the head of the physics department in 1893. Following the discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895, Miller used cathode ray tubes built by William Crookes to make some of the first photographic images of concealed objects, including a bullet within a man's limb. Astronomy (Greek: αστρονομία = άστρον + νόμος, astronomia = astron + nomos, literally, law of the stars) is the science of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere, such as stars, planets, comets, aurora, galaxies, and the cosmic background radiation. ... Princeton University is a coeducational private university located on an extensive campus in and around suburban Princeton, New Jersey. ... 1890 (MDCCCXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar). ... Nickname: The Forest City Motto: Progress and Prosperity Official website: www. ... Astronomy (Greek: αστρονομία = άστρον + νόμος, astronomia = astron + nomos, literally, law of the stars) is the science of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere, such as stars, planets, comets, aurora, galaxies, and the cosmic background radiation. ... A Superconductor demonstrating the Meissner Effect. ... 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... In the NATO phonetic alphabet, X-ray represents the letter X. An X-ray picture (radiograph) taken by Röntgen An X-ray is a form of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength approximately in the range of 5 pm to 10 nanometers (corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 PHz... Wilhelm Röntgen Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (March 27, 1845 – February 10, 1923) was a German physicist, of the University of Würzburg, who, on November 8, 1895, produced wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation that are now known as x-rays or Röntgen Rays. ... 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Cathode ray tube employing electromagnetic focus and deflection Cutaway rendering of a color CRT The cathode ray tube or CRT, invented by Karl Ferdinand Braun, is the display device that was traditionally used in most computer displays, video monitors, televisions, radar displays and oscilloscopes. ... Sir William Crookes, OM , FRS (June 17, 1832 – April 4, 1919) was an English chemist and physicist. ...

Aether research

In 1900, he began work with Edward Morley on the detection of aether drift, at the time one of the "hot" areas of fundamental physics. Following on with the basic apparatus as the earlier Michelson-Morley experiment, Miller and Morley published another null result in 1904. The experiments concern many physicists dealing with Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday. ... Edward Morley (1887). ... The aether (also spelled ether) is a substance concept, historically used in science and philosophy. ... The Michelson-Morley experiment, one of the most important and famous experiments in the history of physics, was performed in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University, and is considered by some to be the first strong evidence against the theory of... In the scientific method, an experiment (Latin: ex-+-periri, of (or from) trying), is a set of actions and observations, performed in the context of solving a particular problem or question, to support or falsify a hypothesis or research concerning phenomena. ... A Superconductor demonstrating the Meissner Effect. ... Albert Einstein, photographed by Oren J. Turner in 1947. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Relativity: The Special and General Theory Albert Einsteins theory of relativity, or simply relativity, refers specifically to two theories: special relativity and general relativity. ...

Miller continued with the experiment, conducting thousands of measurements and eventually developing the most accurate interferometer in the world at that time. The type of experimental apparatus Miller used was very delicate. Dayton Miller performed over 200,000 observations and experiments dealing with the aether and aether drift. A second publication in 1926 showed what appeared to be a small amount of drift, which Miller commented on at several meetings. A third, in 1933, continued the theme. From 1902 to 1933 Miller performed experiments producing more accurate measurements. This work on aether was published as a positive result for the existence of an aether drift. However, the effect Miller saw was tiny. In order for it to detect aether, the properties of aether drag would have to more pronounced. Furthermore, the measurement was statistically far from any other measurements being carried on at the time, fringe shifts of about 0.01 were being observed in many experiments, while Miller's 0.08 was not duplicated anywhere else -- including Miller's own 1904 experiments with Morley, which showed a drift of only 0.015. The measurements are perfectly consistent with a fringe difference of zero -- the null result that every other experiment was recording. The luminiferous aether: it was hypothesised that the Earth moves through a medium of aether that carries light In the late 19th century luminiferous aether (light-bearing aether) was the term used to describe a medium for the propagation of light. ... 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Einstein was interested in this aether drift theory and acknowledged that a positive result for the existence of aether would invalidate the theory of special relativity, but commented that altitudal influences and temperatures may have provided sources of error in the findings. Miller commented: ... Temperature is also the name of a song by Sean Paul. ...

"The trouble with Professor Einstein is that he knows nothing about my results. ... He ought to give me credit for knowing that temperature differences would affect the results. He wrote to me in November suggesting this. I am not so simple as to make no allowance for temperature."

During the 1920s a number of experiments, both interferometry based, as in Miller's experiment, and others using entirely different techniques, were conducted and these returned a null result as well. Even at the time, Miller's work was increasingly considered to be a statistical anomaly, an opinion which remains true today, given an ever growing body of negative results. Generally, a null result is a result which is null (nothing): that is, the absence of an observable result. ...

Shankland analysis

In 1955, Robert S. Shankland, S. W. McCuskey, F. C. Leone, and G. Kuerti performed a re-analysis of Miller's results. Shankland, who led the report, noted that the "signal" that Miller observed in 1933 is actually composed of points that are an average of several hundred measurements each, and the magnitude of the signal is more than 10 times smaller than the resolution with which the measurements were recorded. Miller's extraction of a single value for the measurement is statistically impossible, the data is too variable to say "this" number is any better than "that" -- the data, from Shankland's position, supports a null result as equally as Miller's positive. 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Robert S. Shankland (1908–1982) was an American physicist and historian. ...

Shankland concluded that Miller's observed signal was partly due to statistical fluctuations and partly due to local temperature conditions and, also, suggested that the results of Miller were due to a systematic error rather than an observed existence of aether. In particular he felt that Miller did not take enough care in guarding against thermal gradients in the room where the experiment took place, as, unlike most interferometry experiments, Miller conducted his in a room where the apparatus was deliberately left open to the elements to some degree. Systematic errors are biases in measurement which lead to measured values being systematically too high or too low. ...

In Shankland's analysis, no statistically significant signal for the existence of aether was found. Shankland concluded that Miller's observed signal was partly due to error rather than an observed existence of aether holding radiant energy. Thus, a large, but indefinite, number of mainstream scientists today hold the conviction that any signal that Miller observed was the result of the experimenter effect, which was a common source of systematic error before modern experimental techniques were developed (ed, Miller did publish an 20th century textbook on experimental techniques; cf., Ginn & Company, 1903). Radiant energy is the energy of electromagnetic waves. ... The expectancy effect (or experimenter effect) is a common problem in scientific experiments, a researcher or subject expects a given result, and tends to find it in the data. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... In the scientific method, an experiment (Latin: ex-+-periri, of (or from) trying), is a set of actions and observations, performed in the context of solving a particular problem or question, to support or falsify a hypothesis or research concerning phenomena. ... Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for the investigation of phenomena and the acquisition of new knowledge of the natural world, as well as the correction and integration of previous knowledge, based on observable, empirical, measurable evidence, and subject to laws of reasoning. ...

William Broad and Nicholas Wade, reporters who wrote Betrayers of the Truth: Fraud in Science (1983), have stated that scientists should have reviewed Miller's research more seriously at the time, and that their refusal to do so is evidence of incompetence and unprofessional conduct. Robert Crease argues that it would have been "irrational and unscientific" to suspend Einstein's theory because of a contrary experiment. In Crease's opinion, this would allow some antiscientific ideologues (eg., some Soviet scientists) to stop progress through falsification. _[1]

Modern precision experiments have continually verified the results brought into question by Miller, discounting his repeated attempts. [2] [3] [4]

Other endeavors

Dr. Miller published manuals designed to be student handbooks for the performance of experimental problems in physics. In 1908, Miller's interest in acoustics led him to develop a machine to record sound waves photographically, called the phonodeik. He used the machine to compare the waveforms produced by flutes crafted from different materials. During World War I, Miller worked with the physical characteristics of pressure waves of large guns at the request of the government. Dayton Miller was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1921. He was a member of the National Research Council in Washington, D.C. from 1927 to 1930 [5]. 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Acoustics is a branch of physics and is the study of sound, mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids. ... A schematic representation of hearing. ... A WAVES Photographer 3rd Class The WAVES were a World War II era division of the U.S. Navy that consisted entirely of women. ... The Phonodeik is an sound recording apparatus invented by Dayton Miller in 1908. ... Waveform quite literally means the shape and form of a signal, such as a wave moving across the surface of water, or the vibration of a plucked string. ... The Flute (Ger. ... Combatants Allies: Serbia, Russia, France, Romania, Belgium, British Empire, United States, Italy, and others Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire Casualties Military dead:5 million Civilian dead:3 million Total dead:8 million Military dead:4 million Civilian dead:3 million Total dead:7 million The First World... 155 mm M198 howitzer U.S. Army soldier with a compact M249 variant USS Iowa (BB-61) fires a full broadside of nine 16/50 and six 5/38 guns during a target exercise near Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, 1 July 1984. ... President Harding and the National Academy of Sciences at the White House, Washington, DC, April 1921 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. ... 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... -1... Nickname: the District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Official website: http://www. ...

Published works

• Laboratory Physics, a Student's Manual for Colleges and Scientific Schools. (New York: Ginn & Company, 1903)
• The Science of Musical Sounds (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916, revised 1926)
• Anecdotal History of the Science of Sound (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1935)
• Sound Waves: Their Shape and Speed (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937)
• Sparks, Lightning and Cosmic Rays (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1939)
• The Ether-Drift Experiments and the Determination of the Absolute Motion of the Earth (Reviews of Modern Physics 5, 203-242 (1933))

See also

• Aether and Luminiferous aether
• History of physics
• List of physics topics
• Michelson-Morley experiment

The aether (also spelled ether) is a substance concept, historically used in science and philosophy. ... The luminiferous aether: it was hypothesised that the Earth moves through a medium of aether that carries light In the late 19th century luminiferous aether (light-bearing aether) was the term used to describe a medium for the propagation of light. ... The growth of physics has brought not only fundamental changes in ideas about the material world, mathematics and philosophy, but also, through technology, a transformation of society. ... This page aims to list all Wikipedia articles that are related to physics. ... The Michelson-Morley experiment, one of the most important and famous experiments in the history of physics, was performed in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University, and is considered by some to be the first strong evidence against the theory of...

External links and references

Main

• William J. Maynard (1971). Dayton C. Miller: His Life, Work, and Contributions as a Scientist and Organologist. Master's thesis, Long Island University
• "Dayton Clarence Miller". Today in Science, March 13 - births.
• "Dayton Miller images". American Institute of Physics, 2003.

Aether

• "The Effect of solar motion upon the fringe-shifts in a Michelson-Morley interferometer µa la Miller". Annales de la Fondation Louis de Broglie, Volume 27 no 3, 2002 463. (PDF)

Other endeavors To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

• Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection at The Library of Congress.
• "Crookes x-ray tubes" Dittrick Medical History Center, Case Western Reserve University. 2004.
• "The Phonodeik". The science of musical sounds.
• "Professor Dayton Miller's Research in Acoustics". Engineering Sciences E-129.