I went for the Michelson-Morley experiment, which disproved the existence of the ether (or fixed background to space and time), and was one of the underpinnings of special relativity (at least for the rest of us, Einstein never mentioned it as far as I know). It used the motion of the Earth to demonstrate that the speed of light remains constant regardless of the frame of reference.
As one of the commentors mentioned:
The fact that they set out to find the ether, and in doing so effectly killed it off for the rest of time inspires my faith in scientists looking for truth and not looking for what they want to find.
Update:
We have a winner.
2 comments:
Don't keep us in suspense. Who won?
Actually I was looking forward to more posts. Are you keeping busy?
Jim
Yeah sorry, I will update soon, I've been busy but not with anything particularly interesting until recently.
Michelson-Morley won, by the way:
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2006/02/top_eleven_we_have_a_winner_1.php
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