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Have you ever done one of those spot-the-difference newspaper puzzles where you have to find the missing details using two very similar cartoons? The quick way to solve them is to cut out the two images, place one on top of the other, and shine a light through the paper. It might sound like cheating but it's actually science: you're using the light pattern from one image to show up differences in the other. Scientists use a very similar process called interferometry to measure small things with incredibly high accuracy by comparing light or radio beams. Let's take a closer look at how it works!
Photo: A laser interferometer. The laser beam is split into two parts. One part travels straight to a detector while the other undergoes a change of some sort. By comparing the two beams again at the end, you can measure the extent of the change very precisely.
Artwork: How a basic (Michelson) interferometer works. If we take the green beam to be the reference beam, we'd subject the blue beam to some sort of change we wanted to measure. The interferometer combines the two beams and the interference fringes that appear on the screen are a visual representation of the difference between them.
The Michelson interferometer (named for Albert Michelson, 18531931) is probably best known for the part it played in the famous Michelson-Morley experiment in 1881. That was when Michelson and his colleague Edward Morley (18381923) disproved the existence of a mysterious invisible fluid called "the ether" that physicists had believed filled empty space. The Michelson-Morley experiment was an important stepping-stone toward Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. The Fabry-Perot interferometer (invented in 1897 by Charles Fabry, 18671945, and Alfred Perot, 18631925), also known as an etalon, evolved from the Michelson interferometer. It makes clearer and sharper fringes that are easier to see and measure. The Fizeau interferometer (named for French physicist Hippolyte Fizeau, 18191896) is another variation and is generally easier to use than a Fabry-Perot. It's widely used for making optical and engineering measurements.
Photo: Albert Einstein solved the "failed" Michelson-Morley interferometer experiment with his theory of relativity.
Most modern interferometers use laser light because it's more regular and precise than ordinary light and produces coherent beams (in which all the light waves travel in phase). The pioneers of
interferometry didn't have access to lasers (which weren't developed until the mid-20th century) so they had to use beams of light passed through slits and lenses instead.
Photo: Interferometry in action: These 3D topographical maps of Long Valley, California were made from the Space Shuttle using a technique called radar interferometry, in which beams of microwaves are reflected off Earth's contours and then recombined.
Photo: The Keck interferometer. Astronomers have linked the two 10-m (33-ft) optical telescopes in these domes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii to make what is effectively a single, much more powerful telescope.