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They expected the light traveling against the ether wind (and back) to take longer than the light traveling at right angles. The effect is the same as it was for the airplane that flew into the headwind: The crests of the light going into the wind and back should be a little farther apart, so the two scientists expected to see an interference wave. After they saw the pattern, they planned to rotate the slab until the pattern showed the biggest difference. From that, they'd know exactly how they traveled compared to the ether, but they saw no pattern, ever, all year.
This result shocked everyone. Well, maybe not those still arguing about monkeys being our ancestors, but it certainly bothered the scientific community. To save the ether wind idea, scientists suggested all kinds of possibilities: The experiment was too crude. The ether wind compressed the slab by just the right amount making the distance shorter for the light traveling into the wind. We drag some of the ether along with us. Perhaps we actually stand still. Nobody wanted to get rid of the ether wind altogether. Except Einstein.
Einstein proposed the Special Theory of Relativity in 1905. Lots of complicated math came along with the idea, but we don't need the calculations here. The theory basically said two things:
1. We can't use ether for measuring motion.
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