partial aether dragging Fresnel's dragging coefficient Michelson–Morley experiment Michelson–Morley Fresnel's aether
Fizeau's results, although consistent with Fresnel's earlier hypothesis of partial aether dragging, were extremely disconcerting to physicists of the time. Among other things, the presence of an index of refraction term meant that, since 



n


{\displaystyle n}

 depends on wavelength, the aether must be capable of sustaining different motions at the same time. A variety of theoretical explanations were proposed to explain Fresnel's dragging coefficient, that were completely at odds with each other. Even before the Michelson–Morley experiment, Fizeau's experimental results were among a number of observations that created a critical situation in explaining the optics of moving bodies.
