Sawilowsky's paradox

In applied statistics, Sawilowsky's paradox, which is related to Abelson's paradox, pertains to a possible paradoxical relationship between the magnitude of the &eta;2 effect size and its practical meaning. Sawilowsky's example was based on the analysis of eta2 of the 1887 Michelson–Morley experiment. This interferometer experiment is known as the most famous "null" result in physics, because the hypothesized 30 km/s necessary to confirm the existence of the luminiferous aether was not found. The experimental results, 5–7.5 km/s, yields an &eta;2 of 0.005. Despite the tiny effect size, the result is 16,750 miles per hour, which exceeds Earth's satellite orbital velocity.