Michelson and Morley designed the 'interferometer' to test the ether hypothesis.
Light beam from a monochromatic light source is split into two beams at the back of the semi-silvered glass block
One of the light beams continues towards M1 (mirror), is reflected back towards the glass block inside which it is partially reflected towards the viewing telescope
The other beam is due to partial reflection at the block reflected towards M2 (mirror) where it is relfected back towards the glass block, and into the viewing telescope
The compensator glass block is present to ensure that both beams travel through the same thickness of glass otherwise the wave trains would not overlap
Light fringes are observed because of the difference of the path lenghs of the two beams. Bright fringe when beams arrive in phase, dark fringe when out of phase.
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