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In the history of physics, aether theories (or ether theories) proposed the existence of a medium, a space-filling substance or field as a transmission medium for the propagation of electromagnetic or gravitational forces.
The book covers the history of aether theories and the development of electromagnetic theory up to the 20th century. A second, extended and revised, edition consisting of two volumes was released in the early 1950s by Thomas Nelson , expanding the book's scope to include the first quarter of the 20th century.
This theory described different aether densities, creating an aether density gradient. His theory also proposed that aether is rarified within objects and dense outside them. As particles of denser aether interact with the rare aether they are attracted back to the dense aether much like cooling vapors of water are attracted back to each other ...
Even though Stokes' aberration theory was considered viable for some time, it had to be given up because Lorentz argued in 1886, that when the aether is incompressible as in Stokes' theory, and if the aether has the same normal component of velocity as the Earth, it would not have the same tangential component of velocity, so all conditions ...
As mentioned above, Michelson initially believed that his experiment would confirm Stokes' theory, according to which the aether was fully dragged in the vicinity of the earth (see Aether drag hypothesis). However, complete aether drag contradicts the observed aberration of light and was contradicted by other experiments as well. In addition ...
By the early 20th century, aether theory was in trouble. A series of increasingly complex experiments had been carried out in the late 19th century to try to detect the motion of the Earth through the aether, and had failed to do so. A range of proposed aether-dragging theories could explain the null result but these were more complex, and ...
To solve the issue of action at a distance, aether theories were developed. The aether was considered as a yet undetected medium and responsible agent for conducting the force. In a letter to Robert Boyle in 1679 Newton proposed an "aethereal substance" to explain gravity. [4] Later in his work Opticks of 1717 he considered the aether to be ...
1887 – The Michelson–Morley experiment, intended to measure the relative motion of Earth through the (assumed) stationary luminiferous aether, got no results. This put an end to the centuries-old idea of the aether, dating back to Aristotle, and with it all the contemporary aether theories. [81]