Abstract

Chalmers W. Sherwin conducted an experiment which he reported in Physical Review A, Vol. 35, No.9, May 1987. The experiment-was ingeniously designed to detect the Lorentzian stress induced by the Fitzgerald contraction of macroscopic matter moving at a velocity, v. Briefly, an accelerometer was spun on the end of a spring. If Fitzgerald contraction was real, Shenvin expected the accelerometer to display a signal at twice the rotation frequency, due to the galactic velocity of the solar system.

The author's proposed modified Lorentz ether is described, including the increase of mass with velocity through the ether. Next, it is shown that the fault with Shenvin's expected results was, in fact, that he ignored the increase of mass withvelocity.lt is shown that the increase of mass, together with conservation of momentum, causes an elliptic orbit about the center flattened precisely in agreement with the Fitzgerald contraction. Thus, Shenvin's null result says: If the increase of mass with velocity is real, Fitzgerald contraction is real.