Robert S. Shankland
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Robert Sherwood Shankland (January 11, 1908 – March 1, 1982) was an American
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
and
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
.


Biography

Robert S. Shankland was an undergraduate at the Case School for Applied Sciences from 1925–1929 and received his
master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
in 1933. He completed his
Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
degree in 1935 for work on photon scattering with
Arthur Compton Arthur Holly Compton (September 10, 1892 – March 15, 1962) was an American particle physicist who won the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the Compton effect, which demonstrated the particle nature of electromagnetic radiati ...
at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. His other research included work on the
ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays ...
and standard
frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio ...
regulations from 1929–1930 with the US
National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sc ...
, and worked in England on
sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...
for
submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
warfare early in World War II. Shankland's report on the
Albert A. Michelson Albert Abraham Michelson ( ; December 19, 1852 – May 9, 1931) was an American physicist known for his work on measuring the speed of light and especially for the Michelson–Morley experiment. In 1907, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, ...
's Irvine Ranch experiments was published in 1953. In the British journal ''
Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...
'', Shankland gave the historical background of how
Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...
formulates the first two principles, in 1905, of the
special theory of relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory of the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's 1905 paper, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", the theory is presen ...
from the
Michelson–Morley experiment The Michelson–Morley experiment was an attempt to measure the motion of the Earth relative to the luminiferous aether, a supposed medium permeating space that was thought to be the carrier of light waves. The experiment was performed between ...
. Shankland believed that the accepted direct explanation for the Michelson–Morley experiment is provided by the special theory of relativity given by Einstein in 1905. Shankland recorded that Michelson's Santa Ana trip was to look at the science of the
aether Aether, æther or ether may refer to: Historical science and mythology * Aether (mythology), the personification of the bright upper sky * Aether (classical element), the material believed to fill the universe above the terrestrial sphere ** A ...
. After completing graduate studies he joined the faculty at Case School for Applied Sciences. In 1941 he succeeded Dayton C. Miller as the Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics at Case, a position he held until his retirement in 1976. Shankland worked on
neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is an elementary particle that interacts via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small ('' -ino'') that i ...
experiments with
Argonne National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Lemont, Illinois, Lemont, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1946, the laboratory is owned by the United Sta ...
from 1953–1969, and had other interests including the history of relativity and architectural acoustics. He collaborated with
George Szell George Szell (; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor, composer and pianist. Considered one of the twentieth century's greatest conductors ...
, the director of the
Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". T ...
, to improve the acoustics of
Severance Hall Severance Hall, also known as Severance Music Center, is a concert hall in the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio, home to the Cleveland Orchestra. Opened in 1931 to give the orchestra a permanent home, the building is n ...
, making it easier for musicians to hear each other on the stage. Shankland's father, Frank North Shankland, was the author of "Modern Romances" and several books on birds and animals. In 1929 Shankland married Hilda Catherine Kinneson. They had five children: Ruth Ellen, Dorothy Margaret, Lois Virginia, Ava Gertrude, and Sherwood Jean, and 14 grandchildren. Hilda died in 1970 and he married Eleanor Newlin. Shankland was a passionate outdoorsman and a knowledgeable collector of iron animal traps and Native American artifacts.


Analysis of the Miller experiment

Beginning in 1952, Shankland led a team that performed an analysis of
Dayton Miller Dayton Clarence Miller (March 13, 1866 – February 22, 1941) was an American physicist, astronomer, acoustician, and accomplished amateur flautist. An early experimenter of X-rays, Miller was an advocate of aether theory and absolute space ...
's interferometric results, and concluded that Miller's reported positive ether drift was likely caused by thermal fluctuations, and that, when this is taken into account, the results were consistent with
special relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory of the relationship between Spacetime, space and time. In Albert Einstein's 1905 paper, Annus Mirabilis papers#Special relativity, "On the Ele ...
. Shankland's explanation is now accepted by most mainstream scientists. In 1925–1926, Dayton Miller performed interferometric observations at Mount Wilson, similar to the
Michelson–Morley experiment The Michelson–Morley experiment was an attempt to measure the motion of the Earth relative to the luminiferous aether, a supposed medium permeating space that was thought to be the carrier of light waves. The experiment was performed between ...
, that appeared to reflect a measurable drift of the Earth through the
luminiferous aether Luminiferous aether or ether (''luminiferous'' meaning 'light-bearing') was the postulated Transmission medium, medium for the propagation of light. It was invoked to explain the ability of the apparently wave-based light to propagate through empt ...
, in apparent contradiction with other experiments of that type and with relativity's prediction that no aether should be observable. In 1955, Shankland published a paper analyzing Miller's data, arguing that "the small periodic fringe displacements found by Miller are due in part to statistical fluctuations in the readings of the fringe positions in a very difficult experiment" and "the remaining systematic effects are ascribed to local temperature conditions." Moreover, he argues that the thermal gradients responsible for the effects "were much more troublesome at Mount Wilson than those encountered by experimenters elsewhere, including Miller himself in his work done at Case in Cleveland." In a 1973 review paper on the experimental development of relativity, Shankland included an August 31, 1954 letter to him by Einstein agreeing with his analysis. (Shankland had sent Einstein a manuscript prior to its publication.) Einstein wrote: :I thank you very much for sending me your careful study about the Miller experiments. Those experiments, conducted with so much care, merit, of course, a very careful statistical investigation. This is more so as the existence of a not trivial positive effect would affect very deeply the fundament of theoretical physics as it is presently accepted. :You have shown convincingly that the observed effect is outside the range of accidental deviations and must, therefore, have a systematic cause. You made it quite probable that this systematic cause has nothing to do with "ether-wind," but has to do with differences of temperature of the air traversed by the two light bundles which produced the bands of interference. Such an effect is indeed practically inevitable if the walls of the laboratory room have a not negligible difference in temperature. :It is one of the cases where the systematic errors are increasing quickly with the dimension of the apparatus. In Shankland's re-analysis, no statistically significant signal for the existence of aether was found. The analysis is accepted by mainstream physicists, the abandonment of the concept of the aether is nearly universal, and Miller's observed signal is believed the result of
experimenter's bias Observer bias is one of the types of detection bias and is defined as any kind of systematic divergence from accurate facts during observation and the recording of data and information in studies. The definition can be further expanded upon to inc ...
; the "signal" that Miller observed in 1933 is actually composed of points that are an average of several hundred measurements each, and the magnitude of the signal is more than 10 times smaller than the resolution with which the measurements were recorded. Though
Maurice Allais Maurice Félix Charles Allais (31 May 19119 October 2010) was a French physicist and economist, the 1988 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for his pioneering contributions to the theory of markets and efficient utilization ...
and James DeMeo do not accept Shankland's refutation and hold to the belief that Miller's experiment invalidates the theory of relativity, Einstein's theory is today regarded by most physicists as proven, based largely on the vastly more accurate repetitions of Miller's measurements made using modern optical technology by numerous independent researchers that have shown conclusively that Miller's reported positive signal was spurious. Miller's data, and Shankland's analysis of it, are now of only historical interest.


External links and references

* ''AIP International Catalog of Sources'', summary o
Robert S. Shankland
audio archive. * James DeMeo, "

'" * Allais, Maurice, "

'". 21st century – Science & Technology. Spring 1998. ** "

'". (German) * Allais, Maurice, "

'". French Academy of Sciences, January 23, 1997. * Allais, Maurice, "

'". French Academy of Sciences, April 26, 1999. * Allais, Maurice, "

''". French Academy of Sciences, December 2000 * "'' ttps://web.archive.org/web/20040329102618/http://www.ensmp.fr/aflb/AFLB-272/aflb272p463.pdf The Effect of solar motion upon the fringe-shifts in a Michelson-Morley interferometer a la Miller'". Annales de la Fondation Louis de Broglie, Volume 27 no 3, 2002 463. (
PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...
) * "
The Michelson Speed of Light Experiment at the Irvine Ranch
'"
Time and Eternity
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* Time : The Scientific Accoun

* R. S. Shankland, S. W. McCuskey, F. C. Leone, and G. Kuerti, "New analysis of the interferometric observations of Dayton C. Miller," ''Rev. Mod. Phys.'' 27, 167–178 (1955). * R. S. Shankland, "Michelson's role in the development of relativity," ''Applied Optics'' 12 (10), 2280 (1973). ----


Appendix: partial list of Shankland's publications

* R. S. Shankland, "An apparent failure of the photon theory of scattering," ''Phys. Rev.'' 49, 8–13 (1936). * R. S. Shankland, J. W. Coltman, "Departure of overtones of vibrating wire from true harmonic series," ''J. Acoust. Soc. Am.'' 10 (3), 161–166 (1939). * R. S. Shankland, "Analysis of pulses by means of harmonic analyzer," ''J. Acoust. Soc. Am.'' 12 (3), 383–386 (1941). * E. W. Samuel, R. S. Shankland, "Sound field of Straubel X-cut crystal," ''J. Acoust. Soc. Am.'' 22 (5), 589–592 (1950). * R. S. Shankland, S. W. McCuskey, F. C. Leone, and G. Kuerti, "New analysis of the interferometric observations of Dayton C. Miller," ''Rev. Mod. Phys.'' 27, 167–178 (1955). * H. J. Ormestad, R. S. Shankland, A. H. Benade, "Reverberation time characteristics of Severance Hall," ''J. Acoust. Soc. Am.'' 32 (3), 371–375 (1960). * R. S. Shankland, ''Atomic and Nuclear Physics'' (Macmillan: New York, 1960). * R. S. Shankland, "Michelson-Morley experiment," ''Am. J. Phys.'' 32 (1), 16–35 (1964). * R. S. Shankland, "Quality of reverberation," ''J. Acoust. Soc. Am.'' 43 (3), 426–430 (1968). * R. S. Shankland, ed., ''Scientific Papers of Arthur Holly Compton'', (
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
Press: Chicago, 1973). * R. S. Shankland, "Michelson's role in the development of relativity," ''Applied Optics'' 12 (10), 2280 (1973). * R. S. Shankland, "Conversations with Einstein," ''American Journal of Physics'' 41 (7), 895–901 (1973). * R. S. Shankland, "Acoustics of Greek theaters," ''Physics Today'' 26 (10), 30 (1973). * R. S. Shankland, "Michelson and his interferometer," ''Physics Today'' 27 (4), 37 (1974) * R. S. Shankland, "Michelson: America's first Nobel-prize winner in science," ''Bulletin of the American Physical Society'' 21 (4), 601–602 (1976). * R. S. Shankland, "Architectural Acoustics in America to 1930," ''J. Acoust. Soc. Am.'' 61 (2), 250–254 (1977). * R. S. Shankland, "Acoustical designing for performers," ''J. Acoust. Soc. Am.'' 65 (1), 140–144 (1979). * R. S. Shankland, "Einstein, Albert — In Remembrance," ''Biography — An Interdisciplinary Quarterly'' 2 (3), 190–200 (1979) {{DEFAULTSORT:Shankland, Robert S. 1908 births 1982 deaths 20th-century American physicists Case Western Reserve University alumni Case Western Reserve University faculty People from Willoughby, Ohio University of Chicago alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society