The Michelson-Morley Experiment is oft pointed to as one of the most important scientific experiments ever. Scientists have repeated the mantra, since Michelson-Morley didn't find any movement, then the luminiferous aether must not exist. And this has been the sacred scientific word for a century.
However, this is utter bunk.
Michelson-Morley found something... and then called it nothing. It was not as big of a something as Michelson-Morley expected to find, but it was still something. It is just bad to say that since you expected to get $100 from grandma, and instead got $20 from grandma, that you go around and say you got nothing from grandma. And this is what they did, they didn't find the magnitude of difference they were expecting, then they jumped to the conclusion that the aether doesn't exist.
Yes, the science books state that they figured their measurements were errors, and really should have been zero, but that is hard to swallow with the amount of precision and effort in producing the measuring apparatus. Also, they only performed the bare minimum of measurements to meet the lowest level of data reliability. Just, bad science, all around.
Furthermore, the experiment was based on many assumptions. Such as, we live on a spinning globe hurtling through space. Hurtling through space as in movement in an XYZ coordinate system. Another assumption is that we moved through the luminiferous aether, and that the aether was still. And further, they assumed that light would be affected by this movement. All of these are assumptions, and can only be stated as "facts" of the era. As in, everyone knows the moon's made of cheese.
Michelson-Morley's experiment measured only along 2 axis, both parallel to the ground. So, what if these "scientists" were looking to measure wave height in a body of water? Yes, I know this is a silly example, but it is closer to the truth then any would want to admit.
So, any person of the sea would note, that if you want to measure the height of the waves, you put a pole vertically into the water with measurements on its edge.
There you have Michelson-Morley placing their X into the ocean, and saying, "well, I don't seem to be measuring much wave activity."
And then they go and place their X in a big lake, and say, "I am still not seeing any wave activity."
And then the finally place their X in a reflection pond and say, "See?, there are no waves."
There was a scientist around the time of Einstein who performed the Michelson-Morley experiment, but he did so at differing elevations. And he found that he got different measurements at each elevation. What a colossal find.
He showed his findings to Einstein, who put it off as differences in temperature.
The Michelson-Morley experiment and all its assumptions became gospel in the scientific community. And any nay-sayers never made it through college and never ever got into any peer-reviewing status. So, all the peer-reviewers agree, that this is the gospel.
One of the most interesting disproofs of the Michelson-Morley Experiment comes form an aether theory. A theory that we are held to the ground by the constant flow of aether into the earth. If this theory is true, then the direction of the aether flow would be (dun dun dunnn) straight down; perpendicular to the experiment. The direction that was never measured.
The idea that we are moving through a static aetheric field is actually quite childish. There are many other ideas about how/what the aether is and does. Such as, we could be inside a system, inside a system. Like a solar system is system inside the larger system, the galaxy. That the aether spins and rotates along with the planets and the sun. There is actually a lot of evidence that spin, in a system is one of the most important parts of physics. However, in physics class, it is mostly ignored, unless they are talking about how centrifugal force doesn't exist.
Reading the ideas on aether theory is really fascinating. However, when I attended physics classes, the ideas were completely ignored, or were placed, firmly, in the area of "flat earth" which only neanderthals and untrained idiots believed in. So, I would suggest a delve into some really old books. Some of the most awesome theories from some great thinkers, hidden from sight, and mocked into oblivion
To sum up, we do not live on a ball shaped planet hurtling through a static space. We do not live in a universe that can be measured on three linear lines XYZ. We do not know much about how light travels, or what affects it. Nor do we know the speed of light... as we stopped measuring it (because speed of light, over time, varied and we couldn't have that). So, we need to knock the Michelson-Morley experiment off its vaunted pedestal, and go back the drawing board.
