First published: 29 April 2022 @ 6:00 pm
The human race has a long history of carrying out experiments to understand our world better. As time has passed, we have become better at designing experiments and getting more accurate results.
Science experiments are typically carried out to learn more about the universe and our place in it. This is because we have only recently begun to understand the true scale of the universe.
Science experiments help us to develop a better understanding of space, which is what makes them so interesting to study. There are many ongoing science experiments that have been carried out for many years, some for decades or even centuries.
In this article, we will look at five of the longest ongoing science experiments that are still being carried out today.
Photo by Hans Reniers on Unsplash.
What Are Ongoing Science Experiments?
The term “ongoing experiments” refers to an experiment carried out for a long time without interruption or stoppage.
In most cases, these types of science experiments can take decades or even centuries before any results are achieved and may never achieve results in their lifetime.
In order for an experiment to be ongoing, scientists must conduct it without interruption and must have a clearly defined set of goals and parameters that will allow it to be complete if they met the correct conditions.
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1. Michelson-Morley Experiment
The Michelson-Morley experiment is an example of an ongoing science experiment that has been running for over a century without interruption.
The experiment was first carried out in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley, two American physicists who were attempting to measure the speed of light using a moving mirror.
They believed that the velocity of light will change when it passed through different mediums such as air or water, which would then alter the velocity of the moving mirror and therefore change its speed.
However, their experiments proved to be inconclusive, which led to many different interpretations of the results.
One explanation for this is that the universe is not expanding but instead stationary, as there are no definitive measurements to prove otherwise.
This is what makes this ongoing science experiment so interesting as it has sparked a debate between scientists regarding whether or not the universe is expanding and even whether or not we are at the center of it all.
Despite being an ongoing science experiment that has been running for over a century, there have been no conclusive results to measure the speed of light.
Click on the next page to learn more about the longest ongoing scientific experiment!