Re: An Explanation of Dayton Miller’s Anomalous “Ether Drift” Result

Tom Roberts (tjroberts137@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) writes:
Dayton Miller's "ether drift" result is the experiment most commonly
quoted by people who believe in a lumeniferous ether or who think SR is
wrong. Indeed, some claim that by essentially ignoring his result the
"physics establishment" is somehow failing to do proper science, is
suppressing the "truth", and/or is involved in a vast conspiracy to do
something nefarious.

This paper provides a solid and convincing explanation of his anomalous
result, based on standard modern physics and analysis techniques. There
is no real signal in his data and no reason to believe that his result
is valid. Indeed, a re-analysis of his raw data provides an upper bound
on any "absolute motion" of 6 km/sec, fully consistent with similar
experimental results and the prediction of Special Relativity. The
techniques used in this analysis were not available in Miller's day, and
he could not have known that he was looking at statistically
insignificant patterns in his systematic drift that mimicked the
appearance of a real signal.

http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0608238
[...]>

For the naive, can you explain in simplistic terms why, in the key plots,
the scatter is so much less than the error bars?

Thanks,

--John Park
.