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Einstein & Ether

🔗rtomes@kcbbs.gen.nz (Ray Tomes)

3/13/1997 1:28:02 PM
"Eric S. Tiedemann" wrote:

>John Chalmers discourseth:
>> 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. :)

It is relevent to both gravity and light. The following quote from that
speech shows that Einstein considers that it applies to light:-

"According to the general theory of relativity space without ether is
unthinkable; for in such space there not only would be no propagation of
light, but also no possibility of existence for standards of space and
time (measuring-rods and clocks), nor therefore any space-time intervals
in the physical sense." - A. Einstein

It makes as much sense to say "You don't need air or any medium to be
able to hear sound" as it does to say that e/m could propagate without
an ether. Would you as a musician honestly expect to have a reasonable
understanding of the behaviour of sound if you denied the existence of
air? Of course not. Your beliefs would be full of dualisms, paradoxes
and contradictions. Just like modern establishment physics.

The idea that relativity or the Michleson Morley experiment disproved
the existence of an ether is a modern scientific myth. There are at
least four other such myths taught in (US) universities and published in
journals today. All of Einstein, Michelson, Lorentz and Dirac believed
in an ether and they played a major part in the experiments and
development of modern theory, so they cannot be dismissed as crackpots.

-- Ray Tomes -- rtomes@kcbbs.gen.nz -- Harmonics Theory --
http://www.kcbbs.gen.nz/users/rtomes/rt-home.htm

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