Interferometers are a physical phenomenon studied unto themselves and have an additional purpose of being sensitive detectors, specifically used for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) to detect gravitational waves from supernovae. An interferometer was first used in the classical optics Michelson-Morley experiment in which researchers sought to detect 'aether' flow, the movement of the aether within they thought light travelled. The experimental setup consisted of a single incoming beam of light incident on a beam splitter. The beam splitter passed half of the incident beam through itself (the transmitted beam) toward a mirror and the other half was reflected (the reflected beam) toward another mirror. The beam paths were orthogonal and referred to as the "arms" of the interferometer. At each mirror, the beam was reflected back toward the beam splitter, and at the beam splitter the beams were reunited, or "superimposed" upon each other to create one output beam. The output beam t
