An experiment ot test if there is a Lorentz like aether


A description of the experiment


The frequency of an quartz oscillator is determined by the thickness of the quartz used.
If the aether is moving in a direction towards the flat surface of the quartz,
then length contraction should decrease the thickness, and frequency should go up.
If the aether moves at an angle 90 degrees to the flat surface of the quartz,
no change should happen.
To test this I have build 2 quartz oscillators, with 6MHz quartzes, and each identical electronics.
The quartzes are oriented at 90 degrees to each other.
The output of the oscillators is mixed together, and after filtering only the difference frequency is used.
This difference frequency would normally be zero.
It can be adjusted to 1 Hz by slightly detuning one of the quartzes with a capacitor.
The period of the 1Hz can be precisely measured with a timer.
Now if the motion of the earth through the aether is taken into account,
it should make a difference if I rotate the experiment.


The current attempt just looks at f diff, and only can do about 6.10^-7.


The accuracy of the experiment is at present not sufficient to get any valid data.
For a speed of the earth of 5.10^2 m/s versus light speed of 3.10^8 m/s, gamma is
1 / sqrt( 1 - (v^2 / c^2) = 3.6x10^-13. (if I did not goof up).
so 3.5 parts in 10^13.

Currently the experiment can do no better then 10^-7.
SORRY ABOUT THAT, BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME, maybe I will build a better one.

OK I had a go at it and rebuild it, very slightly better now.
Build the thing in a metal box, with separate compartments for each function.
Resolution is now approx. 7.10^-7
This seems to be the current hardware 'noise limit'.
Changes are observed, mostly random, but nothing related to a particular direction.
Contribute to changes are:
1 temperature.
2 resistor noise, but strongly reduced since I lowered 4M7 to 100k
resistor noise causes voltage changes, which in turn causes capacitance changes in the FETS's,
this then causes small frequency changes (random).
3 vibration, but very little.



A picture from the experiment.

Electronics box without the metal lid:
From left to right what is in the compartments:
Power supply, empty, comparator (with LED), oscillator 1, mixer, oscillator 2.



Click here for the diagram in postscript.



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some GPL Linux programs I wrote.