Einstein commented later that it was this result and its subsequent analysis that laid the foundations for his revolution in relativity: ‘If the Michelson–Morley experiment had not brought us into serious embarrassment, no one would have regarded the relativity theory as a (halfway) redemption.’40 The story of twentieth-century science often means that Michelson’s comments about the future of physics residing in the sixth decimal place are seen as hubris, sometimes even mocked for their lack of foresight. But he wasn’t exactly wrong. The future of physics was found in the decimals, it just
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