Michelson-Morley Centennial Symposium 1987: Modern Physics in America

Presentations given at the Michelson-Morley Centennial Celebration, focusing on the progress and research conducted during the 100 years which separate the Michelson-Morley experiment and the symposium. These presentations were given at Severance Music Hall.

The Michelson-Morley experiment was conducted in a basement lab in Adelbert Hall in 1887. The experiment, which examined how light travels through space, challenged the physics of the 19th century and paved the way for Einstein’s theory of relativity.

CWRU Professor Philip Taylor conceived the idea for a citywide festival marking the centennial of the Michelson-Morley experiment. He brought together 13 of Cleveland’s educational and cultural institutions for the celebration, which included this massive physics conference; the installation of a sculpture, Dale Eldred’s Light Path Crossing, atop Crawford Hall on the CWRU campus; and the world premiere of The Light, a work commissioned from composer Philip Glass by the Cleveland Orchestra.