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OT: Einstein & Ether

🔗"Eric S. Tiedemann" <est@...>

3/11/1997 4:47:59 PM
John Chalmers discourseth:
> Date: Mon, 10 Mar 1997 18:08:13 -0800 (PST)
> From: John Chalmers
>
> RE ether: Whether Einstein or other theorists still needed the
> concept of the ether in 1920 is irrelevant to physics today.
> The concept is not needed for current theories.

In his address of that year, Einstein traced the history of the
concept and suggested how the term might resonably be applied to the
metrical properties of space-time as modeled in the general theory of
relativity (which physicists still use all the time). As Gary
Morrison said, he did *not* talk about `ether' as an undulatory medium
for light. Einstein's `ether' is, however, the medium of gravity
waves. :)

> He made essentially no contribution to physics after General
> Relativity.

How 'bout the Einstein-Bose statistics, to name only the most
prominent of his lasting post-1920 contributions.

-est

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