THE ETHER OF SPACE a little longer than the motion across, though everything else was accurately the same, some shift of the interference bands might be expected as the slab rotated. But whereas in all the experiments previously described the effect looked for was a first-order effect, of magnitude one in ten or twenty thou- sand—depending, that is to say, on the first power of the ratio of speed of earth to speed of light—the effect now to be expected depends on the square of that same ratio, and therefore cannot be greater, even in the most favourable circumstances, than 1 part in a hundred million. It is easy to realise, therefore, that it is an exceptionally difficult experiment, and that it required both skill and pertinacity to perform it successfully. That it is an exceptionally difficult experi- ment will be realised when I say that it would fail in conclusiveness unless one part in 400 millions could be clearly detected. Mr. Michelson reckons that by his latest ar- rangement he could see 1 in 4000 millions if it existed (which is equivalent to detecting an error of sth of an inch in a length of 60 miles); but he saw nothing, Everything be- haved precisely as if the ether was stagnant; as if the earth carried with it all the ether in its immediate neighbourhood. And that was his conclusion. 66