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Questions tagged [aether]

Aether (or ether) relates to the material which supposedly fills the entire universe. It is a concept used to understand action at a distance. Aether was described by Huygens as an "omnipresent, perfectly elastic medium having zero density", to support his wave theory of light.

-3 votes
0 answers
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Are the optical medium of 10.1007/BF00758153 and the Lorentz Ether of 10.1007/s00006-011-0303-7 the same thing? [closed]

On the gravitational field acting as an optical medium A Generalization of the Lorentz Ether to Gravity with General-Relativistic Limit The first paper seems to be facing a question: whether there ...
Jerome Wang's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
101 views

Understanding the math of the Michelson-Morley experiment

I'm having some conceptual misunderstandings of the Michelson-Morley experiment. The time for the beam going perpendicular ($t_{across}$) of the aether wind I am getting: $$(ct)^{2}=d^{2}+(vt)^{2}\\ (...
Qubit's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why are the Michelson-Morley experimental results interpreted more broadly than the scope of the tested medium?

My understanding of the experimental design is that they tested for a stationary, luminiferous, light propagating, non-interacting with mass, uniform, ubiquitous medium. This is but one possible ...
GravityTim's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
138 views

What exactly is weird about waves propagating without a medium? What does it violate? [closed]

I can not seem to grasp, why exactly does light travelling through space without the need of any medium was baffling for the scientists of 1800's.
Sumir's user avatar
  • 31
7 votes
1 answer
3k views

Why didn't Michelson and Morley assume or conclude that aether is homogenous and permeate all of space?

In the Michelson-Morley experiment, why didn't they assume or conclude that ether is homogeneous and permeate all of space instead of coming from an unspecified source or direction dubbed the ether ...
user6760's user avatar
  • 13k
4 votes
4 answers
631 views

Speed of light in Michelson-Morley experiment

The (failed) goal of the Michelson-Morley experiment was to detect the motion of the Earth with respect to the hypothetical ether. As far as I understand (e.g. from the exposition in Feynman’s ...
MKO's user avatar
  • 2,200
-6 votes
1 answer
110 views

Was the Michelson & Morely experiment ever valid? [closed]

One of the key predecessors to Einstein's Relativity was another theory having to do with an "Aether" material. This substance was supposed to be the substrate that the universe is built ...
david.cowan's user avatar
-4 votes
1 answer
109 views

What would happen if the aether did exist and there was no such thing as relativity? [closed]

I'm curious as to the purpose of relativity and why the universe would function this way as opposed to a universe with an aether. So what would be different if we had an aether?
Shannon T's user avatar
  • 361
0 votes
1 answer
89 views

All Michelson-Morley experiments have only been done in non-inertial conditions. Does special relativity apply or not?

As far as I know not a single Michelson-Morley experiment has been done in non-inertial conditions. Shouldn't it be general relativity that applies to Michelson-Morley experiments done so far?
mmx_in_orbit's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
18 views

Space expansion and change of electromagnetic radiation wavelenght

The expansion of the universe acts to a photon ray equally as an expanded baloon on points drawn on it just increasing the distances between this differential photons so the integral photon looks like ...
Krešimir Bradvica's user avatar