Industrial Fiber Optics' Michelson Interferometer Kit is the first truly inexpensive kit that faithfully re-creates the time-honored Michelson Interferometer. The Michelson Interferometer was/is a classic device that splits a beam of monochromatic light into two parts that travel along different optical paths, then are merged to produce interference fringes.

The fringes shift or change shape noticeably whenever one of the optical components in either optical path moves, even almost imperceptibly. They also shift when the effective length of one optical path changes slightly with respect to that of the second. These shifts make it possible to measure ultra small changes of a medium's index of refraction, microscopic movements of components as well as the fundamental principle for items such as the laser ring gyroscope.

Before the advent of lasers with a visible beam, the alignment of interferometer components was very difficult to achieve under ordinary laboratory conditions. Now, using the brilliant red beam of an inexpensive Industrial Fiber Optics' laser pointer, alignment can be achieved in just a few seconds.

Exercises include:

• Measuring the diameter of a human hair
• Measuring the coefficient of linear expansion of different metals
• Detecting vibrations using the interferometer as a seismograph
• Confirming the historic Michelson/Morley experiment that demonstrated the speed of light is not affected by the motions of planet earth through space