The Aether
The Aether
net/publication/341219567
The Aether
CITATIONS READS
0 1,453
1 author:
Jeremy Fiennes
Universidade Federal da Bahia
17 PUBLICATIONS 2 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
All content following this page was uploaded by Jeremy Fiennes on 07 May 2020.
Abstract
The existence of the electromagnetic aether is argued from two standpoints.
Conceptual, based on the nature of physical waves. And practical: the various
experiments that demonstrate it. Possible reasons for the strange nullification
of the positive 1887 Michelson-Morley aether-wind result are discussed.
CONTENTS
Preamble p.2 Other p.29
INTRODUCTION General p.29
Aether p.2 GENERAL
Light p.3 CMB p.30
Einstein p.5 Aether turbulence p.31
CONCEPTUAL Gravitational waves p.33
Waves p.5 LIGO p.34
'Vacuum', etc. p.8 Aether:gravity p.35
Characteristic speeds p.9 Vortices p.37
EXPERIMENTAL (1) Continuous universe p.38
Albert Michelson p.10 NULLIFICATION (2)
Michelson 1881 p.10 General p.40
Michelson-Morley Michelson´s retraction p.43
1887 p.13 Absolutism p.44
Nullification (1) p.15 Agenda p.46
Sagnac p.16 APPENDIX
Dayton Miller p.17 Celestial
Shankland p.21 coordinates p.48
Doppler effect p.22 Gravitational potential p.49
EXPERIMENTAL (2) Gravitational waves p.50
Length contraction p.23 Interferometer
Cahill p.24 calibration p.50
2
Preamble
To leave the main body of the text as uncluttered as possible, cross-references and
'asides' are placed in footnotes. The end-notes contain source references only. In the
Internet case they comprise the main site name, with the year and month of access in
brackets.
Contrary to custom, quotations in general are not de rigeur with all the (...)s and [...]s
in the right places. They may be abridged or combined with others from the same
source. But their meaning is never consciously distorted. Whenever possible the original
source reference is given. Italics in general are 'ours'.
The English language in its wisdom not having provided us with non-gender-specific
pronouns, for "he", etc. in general read "he/she" etc.
Due to the common ground between this and the companion 'Einstein' article1, there
may be some overlap.
Thanks are due principally to Barry Cavell and Stan Heshka who read the original
text and made many useful comments, most of which got incorporated. Also to Arthur
Mather and Nick Landell-Mills, who also gave valuable feedback.
INTRODUCTION
'Aether '
The "aether" is today a scientific verbal obscenity, the "unspeakable ae-word" that no
professional physicist shall be heard to utter on pain of being branded a deranged
crackpot, and saying goodbye to his hopes of a successful scientific career:
"The concept of an aether was long ago discarded as a relic of 19th century
a
voodoo science." 2
b
Robert Laughlin :
"The word 'aether' has extremely negative connotations in theoretical physics
due to its opposition to Relativity. This is ironic, because it nicely captures the
way most physicists think about a vacuum."3
a
This would have to include the likes of James Clerk Maxwell and Albert Michelson.
b
Robert Laughlin (1950-) of Stanford University, physics Nobel Laureate.
3
the term nevertheless has a long distinguished pedigree. It derives from the Sanskrit
akasha, which can also simply mean 'space'. References to it are common in Greek,
Egyptian and Indian philosophy from the 5th century b.c. onwards. It was conceived as
the material filling the 'aethereal' region above the terrestrial sphere, being described as:
"The most subtle substance in creation, the mother of all other phenomena."4
Homer5 uses it in the sense of "fresh air" or "clear sky", the pure essence breathed
a
by the gods6. in the medieval cosmos, the innermost terrestrial sphere was made of the
four classical elements: fire, earth, air and water. While the outer celestial sphere,
containing the heavenly bodies, was 'quintessence'– the "5th essence" – effectively the
aether.
Light
In the early scientific era of the 17th century there were two conflicting theories of
b
light. Based on its properties of reflection and travelling in straight lines, Isaac Newton
held it to be a stream of particles. But this did not explain optical dispersion, where a
beam of white light is split up by a glass prism into a rainbow of colours. Nor diffraction,
where light passing a small hole or narrow slit causes fringes on a screen.
Both of these phenomena are consistent with the wave model proposed by Christian
c
Huygens . That light has a characteristic speed c and a frequency f are also wave
properties. Because waves require a physical medium, Huygens propounded a
luminiferous aether which was conceived at the time as essentially homogenous and
stationary in space.
Mainly due to his greater prestige, Newton’s corpuscular theory held sway for more
d
than 100 years. Max Planck spoke of Huygens as:
"Having dared to contest the mighty emission theory of Sir Isaac Newton"7.
In fact the corpuscular theory wasn't even "Sir Isaac's". It was first formulated in the
e
10th century by the Arab polymath Ibn al-Haytham , who wrote in his Book of Optics:
"Light rays are streams of minute particles, lacking all sensible qualities
except energy."8
This is essentially the modern concept of a photon.
a
But then in 1803 the English physician Thomas Young performed his famous
b
double-slit experiment demonstrating the interference property of light . This being
a
Conceived as made.
b
Isaac Newton (1642-1727), English physicist.
c
Christian Huygens (1629-1695), Dutch physicist.
d
Max Planck (1858–1947), German physicist.
e
Ibn al-Haytham (965–1040), Arab mathematician and astronomer. .
4
explicable in wave, but not in particle terms, after that the corpuscular theory started to
go out of fashion, and by the mid 1800s had been generally abandoned in favour of a
wave model.
c
And when in 1865 James Maxwell calculated from the electric and magnetic
d
properties of a 'vacuum' (the aether ) that electromagnetic waves should travel through
it at the known speed of light of 300k km/s, the ondulatory nature of light was generally
accepted. As was then also the existence its medium, the luminiferous aether.
For practical purposes we can just define the aether as "the medium light is
conceived as a disturbance propagating through":
aether = the medium light is conceived as a disturbance propagating
through
It is interesting that Newton at one points of view cogitated the possibility of an
aether, writing in his 1704 Opticks:
"Is not the heat of a warm room convey'd through a vacuum by the vibrations
of a much subtiler medium than air, which remained after the air was drawn
out? And is not this medium the same as that by which light is refracted and
reflected?"9
But he then apparently had second thoughts, arguing that:
"Such a medium would have to extend everywhere in space, and would
disturb and retard the motions of the planets and comets. So there is no
evidence for its existence, and it ought to be rejected."10
Newton seems to have conceived the aether in mechanical terms. In fact it is purely
e
electromagnetic, with electric and magnetic but no mechanical properties .
That light travels at a finite speed was first proposed by the Greek philosopher
f
Empedocles . He held that the Sun's rays take time to reach the Earth. The earliest
g
quantitative measurement was made in 1676 by the Danish astronomer Ole Römer ,
h
based on the eclipses of Jupiter's moons. His value of 200k km/s was however too low,
due his having taken the time light takes to cross the Earth’s orbit as 22 min, rather than
the true 16 min. Correcting for this gives 275k km/s, close to the actual 300k km/s.
a
Thomas Young (1773–1829), English physician and polymath.
b
Appendix p.51.
c
James Maxwell (1831–1879), Scottish physicist.
d
p.2, note.
e
Viscosity, density, etc. (below).
f
Empedocles (490-430 b.c.), pre-Socratic Greek philosopher.
g
Ole Römer (1644–1710), Danish astronomer.
h
'k' = thousand.
5
Einstein
a
Contrary to what is often believed, Einstein was a strong supporter of the aether. He
somewhat half-heartedly rejected it in his 1905 Special Relativity paper:
"The introduction of a 'luminiferous aether' will prove to be superfluous."11
b
But in 1919 he had second thoughts, writing in a letter to Lorentz :
"It would have been more correct if I had limited myself to emphasizing only
the nonexistence of an aether velocity, instead of arguing its total nonexis-
tence. To deny the existence of the aether means in the last analysis denying
all physical properties to empty space."12
And then in his 1920 Leiden address he resoundingly brought it back again:
"Recapitulating, we may say that according to the General Theory of
Relativity space is endowed with physical qualities. In this sense there exists
an aether. Space without an aether is unthinkable. Not only would there be no
propagation of light, but also no standards of space and time."13
Evidently contradicting his the earlier statement. But then, Albert was no stranger to
c
contradiction 14
CONCEPTUAL
Waves
Experimentally, light shows both wave and particle behaviour – the so-called wave-
particle duality. For present purposes the former is of most interest.
d
A wave is not itself a material object. It is an event, a time-dependent disturbance
propagating through a physical medium at a characteristic speed c determined by the
properties of that medium:
wave = a disturbance propagating through a medium
When one throws a pebble into a pond, the disturbance spreads out as ripples
propagating over its surface at a characteristic speed determined by the properties of
e
the water medium. The same holds for sea waves, Fig. 1a , the disturbance here being
caused by the wind.
a
Albert Einstein (1879–1955), German theoretical physicist.
b
Hendrik Lorentz (1853-1928), Dutch physicist.
c
Relativity article.
d
Here always a physical wave, as opposed to the mathematical variety.
e
'Absolute' here is 'with respect to the Earth's surface'.
6
a
Its density and compressibility (below).
b
Assuming no wind.
c
Fig. 1b.
d
Named after the Austrian mathematician and physicist Christian Doppler (1803-1853).
e
Fig. 1c.
7
a
Defined for present purposes as "that which light is conceived as a disturbance propagating
through".
b
'Non-' + 'sense' = doesn't make sense.
c
Albert Michelson (1852-1931), American physicist.
d
Thomas See (1866-1962), American astronomer.
8
a
Henri Poincaré :
"We know whence comes our belief in the aether. If light takes several years
to arrive to us from a removed star, it must be sustained somewhere and
supported by something material."19
b
Hendrik Lorentz :
"I cannot but regard the aether as endowed with a certain degree of substan-
tiality, however different it may be from ordinary matter."20
c
Nicola Tesla :
"All attempts to explain the workings of the universe without recognizing the
existence of the aether, and the indispensable function it plays, are futile and
d
destined to oblivion." 21
e
Paul Dirac :
f
"It is natural to regard light as the velocity of some real physical thing . So we
are forced to have an aether".22
g
John Bell :
"The aether was wrongly rejected on the purely philosophical grounds that
h
what is unobservable does not exist" 23.
'Vacuum', etc.
i
Physical objects have physical properties . If something didn't have physical
j
properties, we wouldn't discriminate or recognize it, and it wouldn't be anything for us.
Because a 'vacuum' has measurable physical properties, specifically its magnetic
permeability 0 and electrical permittivity 0:
a
In 1900.
b
In 1906, a year after Einstein's Special Relativity paper.
c
Nicola Tesla (1856-1943) Serbian electrical engineer and inventor.
d
In a prepared statement on his 81st birthday in 1937.
e
Paul Dirac (1902-1984), English theoretical physicist.
f
p.2.
g
John Bell (1928–1990), Irish quantum physicist, in a 1951 interview.
h
A logical positivist thesis (below)
i
Defining a 'physical object' as "something with measurable physical properties".
j
Any physical thing.
9
–7
0 = 4 x 10 ; 0 = 8.85 x 10–12 (eq.1)
a
it is by definition something physical and exists .
b
Because the terms 'vacuum' , 'free space', etc. all imply 'nothing', they are inapprop-
riate here. This is why we prefer the traditional "aether".
Characteristic speeds
The characteristic speed cs of sound through the air is given by:
(eq.2)
c
where , are the density and elasticity respectively of the air medium. Similarly, the
characteristic speed c of light through the aether is:
(eq.3)
d
where , are its magnetic permeability and electrical permittivity .
Magnetic permeability being associated with electrical inductance, it is effectively
e
'electric inertia' . Electrical permittivity being associated with electrical capacitance, it
f
is effectively 'electric elasticity' .
g
The mathematical expressions for the characteristic speeds of light and sound are
thus exactly analogous. Strongly suggesting that both refer to essentially the same
phenomenon, namely the propagation of a physical disturbance through a physical
medium.
And if as mainstream Relativity maintains light is a 'mediumless wonder', a disturb-
ance of nothing propagating through nothing, the questions it has to answer are then:
– 1) what determines light's characteristic speed c=300k km/s?
– 2) is it simply a coincidence that this is exactly what one would expect for an
electromagnetic disturbance propagating though a medium with the electric and
h
magnetic properties of a 'vacuum' (the aether )24
a
Strictly: wll be said to exist.
b
Synonyms: "void", "nothingness", "vacuity", etc.
c
Or 'compressibility', the inverse of its bulk modulus Ks.
d
Eq.1.
e
Applying a force to a mass, the motion takes time to build up. Applying a voltage (electrical
force) to an inductor, the current (electrical motion) takes time to build up.
f
Applying a force to a spring, it at first cedes, and then builds up an opposing force. Applying a
voltage (electrical force) to a capacitor, it at first cedes, and then builds up an opposing voltage.
g
Eqs.1,2.
h
p.2, note.
10
Both these are excellent questions, to which Relativitists to date have provided no
coherent answers.
EXPERIMENTAL (1)
Albert Michelson
A good starting point for experimental evidence for the aether is the famous (some
might say "infamous") 1887 aether-wind measurement carried out by Albert Michelson
a
and Edward Morley at the Case School of Physics in Cleveland, USA.
Albert Michelson was born in Strelno, Prussia. When he was two, his family emig-
rated to the USA where he grew up, firstly in small mining towns where his father was a
merchant. And then for his high school years in San Francisco where he lived with an
aunt.
Michelson 1881
Based on the electric and magnetic properties of the aether, in 1864 Maxwell predic-
ted electromagnetic waves propagating though it at a speed c = 300 km/s, whose exist-
ence was first demonstrated experimentally by Heinrich Hertz in 1887.
a
Edward Morley (1838–1923), American physicist.
11
Since light was known to travel at this same speed, it was correctly deduced that light
must be an electromagnetic wave. Experiments to determine the aether's properties
then had high priority in 19th century physics.
There were two main theories. The first was formulated in 1818 by Augustin-Jean
a
Fresnel , based on measurements of stellar aberration. He held that the aether does not
partake in the Earth's orbital motion. And so is either stationary, or has only a small
velocity through in space, Fig. 0-5. In which case there should be a measurable aether
wind of ~30 km/s – the Earth's orbital speed – at its surface.
a
Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788-1827), French civil engineer and physicist.
b
George Stokes (1819-1903), Irish mathematician and physicist.
12
average speed of light along it slower than on the perpendicular axis, resulting in a
'fringe shift', a displacement of the interference pattern from which the aether speed can
be calculated.
a
Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894), German physician and physicist.
13
Michelson-Morley 1887
b
In 1885 Lord Rayleigh wrote to Michelson urging him to repeat his 1881 experiment
with greater accuracy32. Michelson was by now Professor of Physics at the Case
School. He accordingly began a collaboration with Edward Morley, who was Professor
of Chemistry at the Western Reserve University, situated on the same campus.
The improved interferometer they created together is shown in Fig. 8. To minimize
the thermal and vibrational effects that had dogged Michelson's previous experiment,
the instrument was assembled in the closed heavy stone basement of a Case school
dormitory. The effects of vibration were further reduced by mounting it on a large sand-
stone block floating in a circular trough containing 275 kg of mercury. The sensitivity
was improved by increasing the light paths to ten times their previous value by repeated
reflection.
a
Fig. 0-5.
b
Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt) (1842-1919), English scientist.
14
distant thunderstorms, passing horse traffic, etc. The observer could easily "get lost"
when they returned34.
a b
A total of 36 sets observations were made over four days in July 1887 , during an
35
hour at noon and an hour at six o'clock in the evening . The readings Michelson
reported are shown in Fig. 0-9.
a
Rotations of the interferometer.
b
July 8,9,11,12.
c
Héctor Múnera (??), Columbian physicist.
d
Using the subscripts 'e' for 'Earth' and '' for 'aether'.
15
Compared to the 1881 experiment, the results this time were definitely positive. But
since they were still well below the 30 km/s expected on the Fresnel stationary aether
a
hypothesis , Michelson reported that:
"The relative velocity of the Earth and the luminiferous aether was certainly
not one fourth, and probably not one sixth, of the Earth’s orbital velocity [of 30
km/s]."37
In August 1887 he wrote to Lord Rayleigh saying:
"The result is decidedly negative [for the Fresnel theory]. The deviation of the
interference fringes from zero was not the expected. It follows that if the
aether does slip past, the relative velocity is less than one sixth of the
b
Earth’s ."38
Michelson never questioned the aether's existence, but only the extent to which it is
entrained by the Earth's motion. This is evident from the title of his two papers: "The
Relative Motion of the Earth and the Luminiferous Aether". Had he doubted the aether,
he would hardly have given his papers this title. Michelson firmly believed in the aether
c
to his dying day 39.. Obviously, since his own experiment had demonstrated it.
Nullification (1)
In spite of Michelson-Morley's clearly positive aether-wind result, however, well
outside his experimental error, it later:
"Came to be said to be within the range of an experimental error that would
allow it to be actually zero."40
This is the famous "null result" quoted in most physics textbooks. It made
Michelson's "the most famous failed experiment in history"41. And gained for him a
d
physics Nobel prize , the first American ever to receive one42. After this the idea of the
aether went out of fashion.
As just seen, however, the M&M result was very definitely not zero. And they
themselves did not report it as such. Their measured of 6.22 km/s is 22'400 km/h.
Imagine being stopped the police at this speed. And attempting to convince the officer
that it was "within the range that would allow it to be actually zero"!
So how could Michelson's result have "come to be said" to be null within experimen-
e
tal error? Dayton Miller commented in 1933:
a
Fig. 0-5.
b
Below.
c
In spite of being a religious agnostic!
d
In 1907.
e
Dayton Miller (18661941), American physicist and astronomer.
16
"The indicated effect was not zero. The conclusions published in 1887 stated
that the observed relative motion of the Earth and aether did not exceed one
fourth of the earth's orbital velocity. This is quite different from the null effect
now so frequently imputed to this experiment."43
Just because something is less than expected, doesn't make it null. And since when
have 'experimenters' expectations' been a valid criterion for judging a scientific experi-
ment? To the contrary, Science purports to be open-minded and objective. And to
proceed from experimental results to explanatory theories, and not vice-versa. And
since when has "coming to be said" been accepted scientific methodology?
In his final report Michelson made the further important qualification that:
"In what precedes the motion of the solar system is not considered. The
experiment will therefore be repeated at intervals of three months, and all
uncertainty will be avoided. "44
This, however, he unfortunately never did. Had he done so, the course of modern
physics could well have been very different.
Even if Michelson had obtained a null result, as he himself recognized, that would not
have established the aether's non-existence. But simply that it had zero speed at that
particular point in the Earth's orbit.
Sagnac
a
In 1913 Georges Sagnac mounted an interferometer on a circular platform rotating
with a vertical axis. Split light beams were sent around the platform in opposite direc-
tions, Fig. 0-11a. And then recombined to form an interference pattern that was
recorded photographically, Fig. 0-11b. The physical set up is shown schematically in
Fig. 0-11c.
a
Georges Sagnac (1869–1928), French physicist.
b
The small aether drift of ~0.1% of the speed of light is here negligible.
17
travel than the clockwise beam 'b'. This should result in a fringe shift with respect to the
stationary condition, with a magnitude varying with the rotational speed.
The results conformed to the prediction, confirming the aether's existence. Sagnac
reported his results in two papers:
"The existence of the luminiferous aether demonstrated by means of the
effect of a relative aether wind in a uniformly rotating interferometer"
and:
"On the proof of the reality of the luminiferous aether with the experiment of
the rotating interferometer."46
Their titles summarize his conclusion.
Sagnac considered his experiment to be conceptually similar Michelson-Morley's. It
is in the sense that it demonstrates the aether's existence. But unlike the M&M experi-
ment, it didn't provide a value for the aether wind.
a
In 1925 Michelson and Gale repeated the Sagnac experiment . But with a large fixed
interferometer 650m x 360m in size, using the Earth's surface as the platform and its
rotation as the angular velocity. Sagnac himself had suggested such an experiment.
Assuming an aether essentially stationary in space, independent of the Earth's
b
rotation , a fringe shift of 0.236 was predicted. The measured value of 0.2300.005
confirmed this47.
Sagnac's, Michelson-Gale's, and a number of other similar experiments using
rotating frames also confirmed the aether's existence, thereby refuting Einstein's second
c
'speed of light' postulate and hence Relativity itself .
In spite of which, physicists of the time showed little interest in these experiments, as
if they posed no challenge to Relativity. Einstein never mentioned them in his writings48
d
(he wouldn't, would he! ).
Dayton Miller
In 1900 Morley was joined at the Case School by Dayton Miller. Together they
e
increased the interferometer's sensitivity by extending the lengths of its arms to three
times the original values, and made various other improvements.
a
In Clearing-IL.
b
Fig. 0-5.
c
Of a constant speed of light for all inertial observers.
d
What people don't say sometimes says more than what they do say.
e
The parallel and perpendicular light paths, Fig. 6a
18
a
But still definitely positive in terms of their experimental error.
b
Due to the (v/c)2 term in the Lorentz factor (eq.4, p.23). The Earth's true aether speed is around
0.1% of that of light (below).
c
A difference of 10 cm in a journey of 100 km.
d
p.11.
e
Rotations of the interferometer.
f
What M&M recognized needed doing, but never did (p.16).
g
Magnitude and direction.
h
At a 95% confidence level.
19
a o b
vs = 8.221.39 km/s @ (5.2h, –67 )
in the direction of the Dorado (Swordfish) constellation in the Great Magellanic Cloud53.
Michelson, who only measured the projection of the aether wind onto his
c
interferometer plane at a single point in the Earth's orbit , correspondingly obtained a
lower aether speed.
d
Fig. 14a shows specimen Miller readings , and Fig. 14b,c his averaged overall
54
results .
a
Solar system ('s') with respect to the aether ('').
b
(α=5.2 hrs, =–67o). Using the symbol '@' to mean "in an astronomical direction" (p.49).
c
Fig. 0-10.
d
Plotted against sidereal time (appendix p.54).
e
p.18.
f
Now with a 52-meter round-trip light path.
20
a
Cf p.15.
b
Below.
c
Cf the exerpt from his1925 report (appendix p.53).
d
Maurizio Consoli (??), Italian nuclear physicist.
21
a
In 1925 Miller was awarded $1000 by the prestigious American Association for the
Advancement of Science for his detection of the aether63 – something the scientific
establishment subsequently declared not to exist!
If anyone deserved a fair hearing it was Miller. He didn't get it. Largely ignored and
isolated in his later years, shortly before his death he gave all his data – more than 300
pages of interferometer readings – to his research associate Robert Shankland with the
somewhat bitter comment to "Analyze them or burn them"64.
Shankland
After Miller died in 1941, Shankland became chairman of the Case School Physics
Department. He did indeed "analyze" Miller's data. But the department having in the
meantime 'converted' to fundamentalist Einsteinism, his "analysis" had the express
intention of discrediting his former boss's work.
After extensive consultation with Einstein, and in what has been called "One of the
most perverse scientific papers ever published"65, in 1955 Shankland et al. pronounced
Miller's results to be worthless, attributing them to seasonal temperature effects66.
The allegation was fatuous. Firstly because Miller had already exhaustively investig-
b
ated and discarded this same possibility in a long series of control experiments –
something that Shankland as Miller's assistant at the time obviously knew well.
Secondly: if temperature was the cause, daily variations should produce analogous
effects, which they didn't.
Thirdly, temperature variations are Sun-dependent, varying with solar time. But
c
Miller's results were functions of sidereal time . And so on.
The so-called "analysis" wasn't even done by the paper's authors, but by a Case
School graduate student, Robert Stearns, who got only a footnote credit67.
Shankland sent a pre-publication draft of his paper to Einstein, who wrote him a
personal letter of appreciation:
"I thank you very much for sending me your careful study of the Miller experi-
ments, showing convincingly that the observed effect has nothing to do with
an 'aether wind', but is due to differences of temperature."68
There by now being no-one left alive prepared to defend Miller, his pioneering work
was interred along with his body, while fundamentalist Einsteinism grew in popularity
and dominance.
Having thus betrayed his master, Shankland received his thirty pieces of silver in the
form of a series of widely published interviews with Einstein. After which his academic
career soared. He ended his days as a bureaucrat within the emerging governmental
atomic energy infrastructure69.
a
Worth a lot more then!
b
Appendix, p.53.
c
Based on a direction in space with respect to the fixed stars rather than the Sun (Fig. 14,
appendix p.54).
22
At Mt. Wilson today there is no record of the exhaustive and ground-breaking work
done there by Miller. But only a memorial plaque to Michelson and Einstein (!)70.
a
Reginald Cahill :
"It was an injustice and a tragedy that Miller's contributions to physics were
not recognised in his lifetime. Not everyone is as careful and fastidious as he.
He was ignored simply because it was believed then, as it is now, that
b
'absolute motion' is incompatible with Special Relativity (it is!). It was
accepted without evidence that his experiments must be wrong. This shows
once again how little physics is evidence based – as Galileo discovered to his
cost. Even today Miller's experiments attract a hostile reaction from the
physics community."71
Doppler effect
c
Continuing with the Doppler effect , this applies to both sources and observers. For a
moving source the waves are 'bunched up' in the direction of motion. An observer
stationary in the sound medium (the air) experiences an approaching source as having
a higher frequency than the emitted, Fig. 0-15a. And correspondingly, a receding source
as having a lower frequency, Fig. 0-15b. When standing beside a motorway, the
apparent sound frequency of approaching cars is higher, and than that of receding cars
is lower, than the emitted.
a
Reginald Cahill (1948-) Australian theoretical physicist.
b
Another of Cahill's creative ways of avoiding the 'unspeakable ae-word'.
c
Cf Fig. 2.
d
Fig. 2.
23
EXPERIMENTAL (2)
Length contraction
b
In 1889 Oliver Heaviside showed from Maxwell's equations that movement though
the aether at speed v alters electric fields by the Lorentz factor :
(eq.4)
c
In the same year George FitzGerald used this and the ad hoc hypothesis that
intermolecular forces are electrostatic to derive the length contraction relation, thereby
explaining the alleged null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment:
"The forces binding the molecules of a solid might be modified by motion
through the aether such that the base of the interferometer is shortened,
d
neutralizing the optical effect ."72
In 1892 Lorentz, independently and more rigorously, arrived at the same conclusion:
"There will be a contraction in the direction of motion proportional to the
square of the ratio of the velocities of translation and of light, such as to annul
the effect of aether drift in the Michelson-Morley interferometer."73
a
Edwin Hubble (1889-1953), American astronomer.
b
Oliver Heaviside (1850–1925), English engineer and mathematician.
c
George FitzGerald (1851–1901), Irish physicist.
d
Why this is not exactly so is shown in the next section.
24
Cahill
In 2002 Reginald Cahill re-examined the Michelson-Morley and Miller interferometer
results. He found that both had failed to take into account:
c
– 1) the FitzGerald-Lorentz length contraction
– 2) the refractive index of the medium, in this case air
d
The Michelson-Morley interferometer set up is repeated in Fig. 17 . For an aether
headwind v, the light speed is c-v on the outward leg and c+v on the return leg, which
2e
without length contraction would give an average speed of c/ .
Taking length contraction into account, the apparent average speed is times
greater, namely c/.
o
On the perpendicular axis where the photon moves at 90 to the aether wind, the
f
average light speed is likewise c/ .
a
Joseph Larmor (1857-1942), Irish physicist.
b
Effectively an electron-positron pair. Electrons were known by then. The atomic nucleus was
only discovered by Rutherford in 1911.
c
Known to Miller, but not to M&M, at the time of their experiments.
d
Cf Fig. 6
e
Appendix eq.6 (p.51).
f
Appendix eq.7 (p.52).
25
The FitzGerald-Lorentz length contraction, however – and this was Cahill's other
crucial insight refers to conditions in vacuo. But the Michelson-Morley and Miller
experiments were performed in air, where the speed of light is somewhat lower. in which
b
case the two effects don't exactly cancel out. But leave a small residual , which is what
c
Michelson-Morley, Miller and others were measuring. We noted that Miller had realized
that his results were too low, but had attributed it to aether entrainment.
d
Making the necessary corrections, the Michelson-Morley and Miller's experiments
give average aether speeds of:
deWitte
g
Further experimental evidence for the aether was obtained by Roland deWitte . A
technician with the Belgium Telephone Company, in 1991 he was given the task of
a
p.23.
b
~2% of the actual value.
c
p.19.
d
Midday readings.
e
p.50.
f
p.23.
g
Roland deWitte (??), Belgian telephone technician,
26
synchronizing two caesium atomic clocks separated by 1.5 kilometers of coaxial cable,
in a north-south orientation, using radio frequency signals.
The tests ran for 178 days. Fig. 0-18 shows specimen transit times measured over
a
three days. The maximum is in the sidereal direction (α5 hr) , the same as that
b
obtained by Miller half a century previously . Like most others, however, deWitte seems
to have been unaware of Miller's work.
a
When the projection of the aether wind onto the cable is greatest.
b
p.18.
c
At the University of Utah.
d
p.18.
e
p.25.
27
Wallace
a
In 1961 Bryan Wallace was making radar distance measurements to the planet
Venus, when he noted discrepancies in the speed of light. He submitted his findings to
Physical Review Letters, but was refused and had to publish elsewhere83.
"How could NASA not have noticed this?"
he asked. He claimed that NASA had in fact noticed. But that:
"Due to the unfortunate things that tend to happen to physicists rash enough
to challenge Einstein's second postulate, they were reluctant to acknowledge
it. Getting a physicist to say that the speed of light is not constant is like trying
to exsanguinate a turnip."84
Wallace died in 1997 with his findings, like Miller's, neither confirmed nor refuted by
the Physics establishment, but simply ignored.
Marinov
b
The colourful Stefan Marinov comes close to many people's idea of a scientific
crackpot. A native of Bulgaria and former Assistant Professor of Physics at Sofia
University, he was four times forcibly subjected to psychiatric treatment for his political
c
views . Emigrating later to the West, he became involved in the scheme of an esoteric
Swiss religious sect to extract energy from the vacuum of space85.
In 1979, now in Brussels, he made a series of measurements of the speed of light
using synchronously rotating mirrors. He concluded that the solar system moves though
the aether at an average speed of 350 km/s in an astronomical direction (=12 hr, =–
o
20 )86. We discuss this value later.
Marinov's various submissions to Nature were consistently refused. As were also his
letters to the editor and his paid advertisments. The editor wrote to him:
" I am sorry to have to tell you that I am not willing to publish your papers,
because in my judgement they will not persuade our readers of the validity of
your claims. We also do not sell advertising space to people with unorthodox
views who have failed our usual tests of acceptability, which would be quite
unacceptable. (sgd) Dr. Philip Campbell, Editor."87
In other words "Your submissions are quite unacceptable, because I have deemed
them quite unacceptable".
Marinov was so incensed with this that he threatened to immolate himself in front of
the British Embassy in Vienna88. He later commented:
a
Bryan Wallace (d.1997), American radio astronomer.
b
Stefan Marinov (1931–1997), Bulgarian physicist.
c
Soviet communism's standard way of dealing with such cases.
28
"It is clear that to recognize the failure of Relativity in the third quarter of the
twentieth century is a hard nut for the scientific community to crack. But it
must be done, and the sooner the better."89
He ended his life by jumping off the top floor of the Graz University library, writing in
his suicide note:
"Having walked so many years on the thorny way of truth, I became tired. My
books and papers are my scientific testament. I hope that soon the absolute
space-time concepts which I restored by numerous experiments and simple
mathematical theory will be accepted by the scientific community. On leaving
this world I can only repeat the eternal words: Feci quod potui ('I did what I
could')."90
And if, as it now seems, there is in fact an aether wind, the idea of extracting energy
from it is maybe not quite so crackpot after all.
Spacecraft flyby
Further estimations of the aether speed are obtained from the radio-frequency
a
signals emitted by spacecraft as they fly past the Earth. Due to the Doppler effect ,
when a spacecraft approaches the Earth the received signal frequency is greater than
the emitted, Fig. 0-19. And is correspondingly lower when the spacecraft recedes.
a
p.6.
29
a
compatible with Miller's and also his own previous results .
Other
b c
In 1990 the American university professors Howard Hayden and Petr Beckmann
offered a $2,000 reward to anyone who could cite from the literature an experiment
showing the invariance of the speed of light in the east-west directions to within 50 m/s.
d
Although the offer was published in Science magazine in November 199093, to date
94
there have been no takers . Silence sometimes speaks louder than words!
General
Resuming the above aether wind results:
Based on these, we will take the average solar-system velocity though the aether to
be:
o
vs = ~40030 km/s @ (5h, –70 )
Múnera noted that of the six experiments carried out between 1887 and 1932 that he
a
analyzed , all without exception obtained non-null aether speeds. But with the notable
b
exception of Dayton Miller , all ended up reporting null results96.
a
p.25.
b
Howard Hayden (??), physics professor at the University of Connecticut.
c
Petr Beckmann (1924-1993), Czechoslovakian professor of electrical engineering at Colorado
University.
d
As of Jan. 2020.
e
Averaged, with the M&M correction factor (p.53).
30
GENERAL
CMB
When the cosmic microwave background (CMB) was discovered in 1965, it was
e
quickly realized that it could provide an 'at rest' reference for speeds .
f98
Consider a spaceship out in deep space, shown in 2-d terms in Fig. 20. Due to the
g
Doppler effect , when moving with respect to the CMB, the pilot experiences a higher
CMB frequency in front of him and a lower frequency behind. So when he sees the same
CMB frequency all around him, he knows he is at rest with respect to it.
a
M&M (1887), Miller (1926), Piccard and Stahel (1926), Illingworth (1927), Joos (1930), Kennedy
and Thorndike (1932).
b
And Michelson originally (below).
c
Another of his creative ways of avoiding the unspeakable ae-word.
d
Ditto.
e
Contradicting Einstein's first Special Relativity postulate that there is none.
f
SpaceTime article.
g
p.6.
31
On this basis, the absolute velocity vs of the solar system has been calculated to be:
o
vs = 370 km/s @ (11.2h, –7.2 )
The direction is towards the constellation Leo99, Fig. 21, i.e. nearly perpendicular to
the approximately southerly direction of the solar system's velocity though the aether
a
determined by interferometer experiments .
Aether turbulence
Cahill observed something that deWitte had noted, and is also present in the
Michelson-Morley and Miller results. Namely that the aether wind is not smooth but
gusty. It varies from hour to hour and day to day in both magnitude and direction, at a
level of ~20km/s100.
d
The same variations are seen in spacecraft flyby data 101. Shankland also noticed
them in Miller's readings. But used them as evidence of his inaccuracy, without consid-
ering that they could be a real effect.
e
Fig. 0-22 shows the fluctuations in specimen Michelson-Morley and Miller
102
measurements .
a
p.25.
b
p.27.
c
p.31.
d
p.28.
e
Fig. 14a.
32
a
Fig. 0-18.
b
Fig. 0-10.
c
p.36.
33
a
Because in the evenings the Earth's rotation is perpendicular to its orbital motion ,
b
whereas at midday it opposes it , this could explain the somewhat lower midday values.
Aether-wind fluctuations also mean that the considerable variability in the M&M and
c
other results is most likely not entirely due to experimental error – giving even less
justification for a 'null' interpretation.
These fluctuations are also implied in the M&M and Miller experimental errors. Miller
d
firstly took far more readings . And secondly, used a considerably more sensitive
instrument. And so should have obtained a far lower experimental error than M&M. That
he didn't again implies that the variations in both results are not entirely due to error, Fig.
0-25.
Gravitational waves
Consider a loudspeaker. Its vibrating diaphragm displaces the air in its vicinity,
f
causing an air-pressure wave propagating at the speed of sound cs . Individual air
molecules in the wave's path oscillate longitudinally, Fig. 0-26a. The net result is a
propagating air-speed disturbance with the wind speed as its mean, Fig. 0-26b:
sound wave = propagating air-speed disturbance
a
Fig. 0-24b.
b
Fig. 0-24a.
c
Fig. 0-10.
d
~12'000 sets, as opposed to M&M's 36 (p.18).
e
p.26.
f
343 m/s (p.9).
34
LIGO
'LIGO' – the 'Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory' – comprises two
d
large stationary vacuum interferometers with 4 km arms , situated 3000 km apart in
Livingston-LA and Richland-WA in the USA. Designed to detect gravitational waves, they
a
Appendix p.50.
b
p.31.
c
Next section.
d
Cf Fig. 6a.
35
are exceptionally sensitive, capable of detecting changes in mirror spacing of one part in
21
10 – equivalent to the width of a human hair in the distance between the Earth and
a
Proxima Centauri ! .
Observations are made in 'runs'. As of December 2019 LIGO had made 3 runs and
during that time registered 50 detections of gravitational waves106.
Or did they? A recent New Scientist article entitled "Grave doubts over LIGO's
discovery of gravitational waves" cites a group of physicists who analysed the LIGO
data and reported that:
"We believe that LIGO has failed to make a convincing case for the detection
of any gravitational wave event."107
And if the staunchly mainstream New Scientist reports what is effectively a
b
'conspiracy theory' , one imagines they must have good reason.
The LIGO interferometers operate in the vacuum mode. And due to length contrac-
c
tion are therefore inherently insensitive to aether speed fluctuations . And if as sugges-
ted above gravitational waves are essentially longitudinally propagating aether speed
fluctuations, then LIGO will be inherently incapable of detecting them:
LIGO: could be inherently incapable of detecting gravitational waves
A simple way of checking this would be to run LIGO in air, rather than with a vacuum
in its tubes. Positive fringe-shifts would substantiate this hypothesis. And would also
confirm the FitzGerald-Lorentz length contraction, and finally resolve the perennial
Michelson-Morley dispute.
But since this would also confirm the Cahill interferometer calibration and demon-
strate the aether's existence, refuting Einstein's Relativity, one wonders whether it will
ever be done. One also wonders whether the FitzGerald-Lorentz length contraction was
in fact taken into account when LIGO was projected (?).
Aether:gravity
There are strong experimental links between aether speeds on the one hand and
gravity on the other. For instance:
d
– 1) gravitational waves travel at the speed of light c , the characteristic speed of the
aether.
e
– 2) both an aether speed and a gravitational potential cause clock slowing 108.
– 3) atomic clocks depend on nuclear processes, and hence on matter which is
a
4×1013 km away.
b
That questions an official version.
c
The Cahill calibration (p.24).
d
p.50.
e
Relativity article.
36
associated with gravity. And they show the time dilations predicted by
hypothetical photon clocks that use the speed of light though the aether.
a b
– 4) the 'ECI' reference frame used by the GPS system takes the Earth's centre, a
c d
zero gravity point, as its zero aether-speed reference 109
e
– 5) Cahill's re-analysis of Miller's data shows the aether speed at the Earth's sur-
face to comprise, Fig. 0-28a:
– a) 42030 km/s inflow towards the centre of the galaxy
– b) 42 km/s inflow towards the Sun
f
– c) 11.2 km/s inflow towards the Earth's centre
110
– d) 30 km/s due to the Earth's orbital rotation
The first three again suggesting a relation beneath an aether inflow and a
g
gravitational potential .
In general:
gravity aether speed
a
Earth Centred Inertial.
b
A satelite clock's time correction depends on its speed through the aether (Relativity article).
c
And not, here, zero gravitational potential.
d
Discussed in the Relativity article.
e
p.31.
f
That in principle doesn't show up in horizontal interferometer measurements
g
Cf item 2).
h
Appendix p.49.
i
Item 2).
j
Item 5).
37
a
potential, the GPS system and the Hafele-Keating experiment indicate one with a
gravitational field.
C.-C. Su has shown that zero-aether-speed references for local Earth and interplan-
b
etary satelites are provided by geocentric and heliocentric frames respectively111.
These likewise associate an aether speed with a gravitational field.
c
It is interesting that in one of his first published theories , Newton speculated that
gravity could be due to a medium flowing continually downward toward the Earth's
d
surface, where it is partially diffused and partially absorbed 112.
Resuming, although there seem to be strong links between aether flows and gravity,
their their nature remains unclear.
e113
Vortices
f
In the mid 19th C Lord Kelvin conceived atoms as vortices, or knots, in the aether,
writing:
g
"Helmholtz' admirable discovery of vortices in a perfect liquid inevitably leads
to the idea of atoms as Helmholtz rings. In a display of smoke-rings the
author recently witnessed, two such rings spectacularly rebounded from one
h
another." 114
The idea was taken up by Michelson:
"With regard to the nature of the ultimate particles of ordinary matter, a
promising hypothesis is the 'aether vortex theory', as in smoke rings, which
possess some of the properties associated with atoms."115
Nicola Tesla:
"The primary substance, thrown into infinitesimal whirls of prodigious velocity,
becomes gross matter. Every ponderable atom is differentiated from a
i
tenuous fluid, the aether, that fills all of space, merely by spinning motion as
a whirl of water in a calm lake."116
a
Item 4).
b
As for and the GPS system (Relativity article).
c
In his "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica"
d
He later abandoned it.
e
This and the next section are repeated in the quantum physics ('Copenhagen Trip') article.
f
Lord Kelvin (Sir William Thomson) (1824-1907), Irish-Scottish physicist and engineer.
g
"Wirbelbewegung" – 'swirls'.
h
Somewhat more 'abridged' than normal.
i
"Fragile, vague" (Tesla's note).
38
And:
“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy,
frequency and vibration.”
Einstein:
"We can consider as matter those regions of space when the field is
extremely intense."117
Erwin Schroedinger:
"What we observe as material bodies are nothing but shapes and variations
in the structure of space."
a
The idea is even implicit the writings of the ancient Greek atomists: Anaxagoras and
b
Democritus .
Molecules comprise integral numbers of atoms. And they in turn consist of integral
numbers of fundamental particles: protons, neutrons and electrons. And so on.
In spite of which, however, 'integrality' is an essentially wave characteristic. The
relation between the masses of an electron and a proton is 1 :1836.15267343...118, a
c
non-integral number. But a violin string can only vibrate in integral harmonics . The
possible path lengths of an orbiting electron are integral multiples of its wavelength119.
And so on. Kelvin continues his above quote:
" Spectrum analysis suggests that atoms have one or more fundamental
d
periods of vibration, like a stringed instrument." 120
Continuous universe
Define a continuous universe as one where everything comes from something
according to the Laws of Nature:
continuous universe = everything comes from something according
to the Laws of Nature
A simple analogy is the ocean, where every water molecule affects its neighbours,
and they their neighbours, and so on around the globe.
A more sophisticated metaphor is the fast-flowing river of Fig. 29a.
a
Anaxagoras (~510–428 b.c.), pre-Socratic philosopher. He held the world to be a mixture of
primary imperishable ingredients.
b
Democritus (~460–370 b.c.), pre-Socratic philosopher and the 'father of modern science',
remembered primarily for his atomic theory.
c
1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.
d
Somewhat more 'abridged' than normal.
39
a
Standing waves.
b
With relation to our universe, but not necessarily his.
40
All the concrete matter existing today was created in the primordial plasma during the
a
first twenty minutes of the Big Bang, in the enormously high energy densities that
b
prevailed then 121. After these had fallen below a certain level, no further matter could
be formed.
The 'knotting up' of aether into matter required an energy input. Meaning that aether
knots store energy as in a coiled spring. And that can then be liberated, in nuclear
reactions for instance.
If aether knots are accelerated, the additional energy input 'knots them up' further,
increasing their energy content and hence mass. If they are then collided, they shatter
into a range of smaller 'knotlets', stable and unstable, again with the liberation of energy.
And so on.
The aether on this approach is conceived as the matrix, or fundamental 'stuff ' of the
c
universe from which everything else is made. Being 'knottable' into the seemingly
limitless variety of forms that concrete matter can adopt, it is evidently enormously
complex, having properties that go far beyond being simply the medium that light
propagates through envisaged by Maxwell and Lorentz:
aether = enormously complex fundamental 'stuff ' of the universe
d
If everything in the universe, including us, is made of aether , then in trying to
understand it we are a part trying to understand the whole of which it is part. This being
e
irrationally 122, it is questionable whether we will ever 'understand' the aether in the
sense of determining all its properties. Its fundamental nature could well inherently
elude us:
the aether's fundamental nature could well inherently elude us
NULLIFICATION (2)
General
In spite of the massive conceptual and experimental evidence for the aether's
existence, mainstream Physics persistently persists in denying it. Already in 1873
Maxwell was complaining that:
a
Some say twelve.
b
Determinacy article.
c
Imagined as being.
d
Next section
e
The 'self-incomprehension' principle (QM article).
41
a
p.16.
b
In 1887 and 1913 respectively.
c
Another of Albert's lies. Lorentz never abandoned his belief in the aether (p.8). Neither did
Fitzgerald, who wrote: "To suppose the aether is made of tennis balls and rubber bands, is as bad
as supposing a sphere described by r2=x2+y2+z2 to be made of paper and ink".
42
a
luminiferous aether ('aether wind') . The result was negative. Michelson and
Morley found no significant difference between the speed of light in the two
directions."129
A modern physics textbook states:
"Michelson-Morley expected the aether to produce a shift as large as 0.4 of a
fringe. In 1887 they however reported a null result – no effect whatsoever!"130
Going on to say:
"Michelson and Morley repeated their experiment during night and day, and
for different seasons throughout the year. It is unlikely that at least sometime
during these many experiments the Earth would not be moving through the
aether. They even took their experiment to a mountaintop to see if the effects
of the aether might be different. But there was no change." 131
In fact, however:
– 1) Michelson-Morley did measure fringe shifts, the ones reported in their 1887
b
paper
2) they didn't take readings throughout a year. But only over four days in July 1887,
c
as can also be seen from their paper . This is pure fabrication.
d e
– 3) their mountain-top repetition again gave a positive result .
f
in the space of two pages the text has presented at least three, what Herbert Dingle
would have delicately called:
"Conscious departures from rectitude."132
But which in the vernacular could well be denoted "downright lies". And that anyone with
g
Internet access and a few minutes to spare could readily verify as such
Ok. We live in the 'post-truth' era. And have become used to being blatantly lied to by
politicians, advertisers, economists and the like in support of their pet ideological lines.
But to find the same in Physics, purportedly the most rigorously objective discipline of
h
all ... ! And from two university professors; in reputable academic institutions ; in a
a
Not true. They were trying to distinguish between rival theories of aether entrainment (p.11).
b
Fig. 0-9.
c
Michelson realized that this should be done, but never did it (p.16).
d
In 1929, with Pease and Pearson, and not Morley as the text says.
e
Of ~20 km/s, three times their original 1887 value (p.19).
f
Herbert Dingle (18901978), English physicist.
g
Socrates was executed for corrupting the minds of the young. For the sake of future
generations, maybe it's time to reintroduce the law.
h
Stephen Thornton and Andrew Rex at the Universities of Virginia and Puget Sound respectively.
43
Michelson's retraction
The above-cited physics textbook quotes Michelson as saying of his 1887
experiment:
"There was no displacement in the interference fringes. So the result of the
experiment was negative."133
f g
This time correctly! In a series of lectures first given in 1899 Michelson did in fact
say this. Adding that:
"It would show that there is still a difficulty in the theory."134
We now have another conundrum! In 1887 Michelson measured and reported
h
positive fringe shifts . Twelve years later retracted and said he hadn't! What's going on?
Firstly, when someone makes a statement and later retracts, it is normally because
he has come under some kind of pressure. The original version is most likely to be the
a
CENGAGE Learning.
b
Contradicting the 2nd Relatively postulate of a constant speed of light for all iel observers.
c
Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945), Nazi propaganda minister.
d
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English poet, playwright and actor.
e
Cf the famous Hamlet line: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks". (She wasn't protesting
her chastity, but could well have been.)
f
When the facts support their ideological line, they report them correctly. When they don't, they
misreport them – or simply make up more suitable "facts".
g
Published in book form in 1907.
h
Fig. 0-9.
44
true one. But what was the pressure in this case? Where did it come from, and why?
Since this was six years before Einstein's 1905 Relativity paper, this time at least he
can't be blamed.
We can only conjecture. In the same set of lectures, Michelson however says:
"It appears practically certain that there must be a medium whose proper
a
function it is to transmit light waves, but is not an ordinary form of matter." 135
So he evidently still accepted aether's existence. Even though he was unsure of its
properties.
There seems to have been considerable conceptual confusion in the early 1900s
b
regarding relativity . It was the fashionable theory of the day. But was contradicted by
the aether, which is effectively an 'electromagnetic absolute'. Ironically, the principal
c
proponents of relativity were Lorentz and Poincaré – both of whom firmly believed in
the aether! We already noted Lorentz':
"I cannot but regard the aether as endowed with a certain degree of substan-
d
tiality, however different it may be from ordinary matter."
Poincaré wrote in 1889:
"The essential is that everything happens as if the aether existed."136
So as Michelson truly observed:
e
"There is still a difficulty in the theory ."
(And apparently still is!).
Absolutism
f
The 'eminent men' Maxwell referred to were presumably the diehard Newtonians of
his day who stood firmly by the good old established corpuscular theory of light, and
wanted no truck with the new-fangled wave theory and its concomitant aether. Those
who Max Planck had in mind when he wrote:
"A new scientific truth doesn't triumph by convincing its opponents. But rather:
they eventually die out, and a new generation familiar with it grows up." 137
a
p.7.
b
In general written lower case. Upper case Relativity is specifically Einsteinian.
c
Einstein was practically unknown till the 1919 'Eclipse Show' catapulted him to fame.
d
p.8.
e
And to this present day continues to be!
f
p.40.
45
This does not, however, explain the resurgence of the no-aether myth towards the
end of the century when the Newtonian diehards were presumably all either retired or
dead, and the aether was the conventional wisdom accepted by virtually all professional
physicists of the day. And whose existence had in the meantime been confirmed
experimentally by Michelson and Morley.
Europe in the 18th and early 19th centuries was 'absolutist', in the sense that political
power was still firmly in the hands of an established landed aristocracy. Newton's
rationally ordered universe, with its Master Creator who kept Himself to Himself and
didn't stick His nose into things that weren't His business, validated the structure and
a
suited the times admirably 138.
The droits du seigneur – the "rights of the lord" (the little lord down here on planet
Earth, not the Big Lord up in the sky) – were graciously delegated by the Big Lord up in
the sky to little lords on Earth, without too many awkward questions about how they
were exercised.
By the second half of the 19th century, however, things were changing radically.
Growing industrialization was causing extensive migration from the countryside into the
towns. And more crucially: was putting money and hence political power into the hands
of a nouveau riche class of non-land-owning industrialists, businessmen, bankers and
the like. All of which put a pressure for change onto the socio-political structure.
In times of change flexibility and adaptability are the order of the day. The old
absolutism had to go; and together with it, anything that symbolized it. We see this in
b
philosophy. Nietzsche had declared in 1878 that:
"There are no eternal facts, just as there are no absolute truths".139
And in 1882 that:
c140
"God is dead"
God being nothing if not an absolute.
The later post-modern movement was similarly characterized by:
"A general distrust of grand theories and ideologies; a general skepticism
toward the assumptions of Enlightenment rationality."141.
We see the same in art. An article on Cubism notes that:
"In the four decades from 1870-1910, Western society witnessed more
technological progress than in the previous four centuries. Artists
a
The "Four Pillars of the English Establishment" were the Monarchy, the Church, the Empire and
Newton.
b
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), German philosopher.
c
The idea was not in fact Nietsche's. It was proposed 75 years earlier by Hegel in his 1807
Phenomenology of Spirit.
46
Another contributing factor to aether denial was Logical Positivism, the fashionable
philosophy of the time. It was principally due to the 19th century French philosopher
d
Auguste Comte , who held that the only valid knowledge is that based on "sense
experience" and "positive verification"143. In accordance with which what cannot be
seen, cannot be said to exist.
e
Ernst Mach , for instance, was an excellent professional physicist noted principally
f
for his work on shock waves . But being a dyed-in-the-blood logical positivist, he resisted
to his dying day the existence of atoms on the grounds that they cannot be seen. In
spite of the overwhelming experimental evidence for them already in his time144.
The same applies to the aether. It cannot be seen. And so according to logical
positivism cannot be said to exist.
Agenda
At each point in its history a society appears to have an explicit or implicit agenda,
that can be either 'open/liberal' or 'closed/conservative'. Effectively: politically 'left' or
g
'right' :
agenda: open/liberal/left or closed/conservative/right
a
Providing an absolute reference for electromagnetic phenomena.
b
Specifically including the aether.
c
Francis Bacon (1561–1626), English statesman and polymath.
d
Auguste Comte (1798–1857), French philosopher.
e
Ernst Mach (1838-1916), Austrian physicist and philosopher.
f
The ratio of a speed to that of sound is named the "Mach number" in his honor.
g
'Absolute' being 'not susceptible to change', a conservative agenda is by nature absolutist.
47
In times of change, flexibility and adaptability are at a premium and the agenda is
open/liberal. In stable settled periods the opposite holds. The closed/conservative
principle dominates, with respect for tradition and the maintainance of status quo as the
order of the day.
With its emphasis on innovation and change, a liberal agenda tends to undermine
the existing power structure, opening it up for further change. Conversely, in conser-
vative times when social mobility is low, the road to individual advancement lies in
allying oneself with that power structure, thereby strengthening it. Each agenda is self-
reinforcing, leading to abrupt swings between them when they change.
th a
The late 19 C switch to an open/liberal agenda led to radical innovations in science
and art. And continued well into the 1920s. But then came the 1929 Wall St crash, with
ensuing economic depression and a swing to the political right, fascism, and ultimately
World War II. It was during this period, in the 1930s, that fundamentalist Einsteinism and
b
anti-aetherism became entrenched in Science 145.
c
The optimism following the end of World War II in 1945 led to a new swing to an
open/liberal agenda, with an accompanying surge in artistic and scientific innovation and
creativity. But that was abruptly reversed in the late 1970s with Thatcher/Reaganism
and the consequent massive lurch to the political right. That has continued unabated to
the time of writing, and with no sign of letting up.
So more than a century after Michelson-Morley, anti-aetherism is again rampant. But
this time for the opposite reason. Its original rejection derived from a liberal agenda and
a desire to break with the conventional wisdom. Today, Einsteinian Relativity having in
d
the meantime become the conventional "wisdom" , anti-atheism stems from a conser-
vative agenda and a pressure to conform to it.
That essentially anti-authoritarian Relativity should have become a touchstone for
compliance with authority, is evidently ironic. But history is littered with contradictions.
As Einstein once said of himself, with his inimitable humour:
"To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate made me one."146
Science doesn't tell us the way things are. It tells us the way we want to be told they
are:
Science tells us the way we want to be told things are
a
Quantum physics, for instance.
b
Discussed in the Einstein article.
c
The end of every major war is heralded as the end to all major wars.
d
"So-called".
48
Or maybe better: we only listen to those scientists who tell us what we want to hear,
a
ignoring those who don't. As Francis Bacon noted ; and Dayton Miller discovered to his
b
cost .
That would seem to be it. No matter how well founded a scientific thesis, its
acceptance or rejection depends little on its actual scientific merits. And principally on
c
whether it supports or opposes the current political agenda. Adam Becker :
"The course of scientific progress is dictated as much by the vagaries of the
Zeitgeist, and the forcefulness of personalities, as by the strength of ideas
themselves. When trying to understand why certain ideas are accepted as
gospel and others are forgotten, dismissed or even actively suppressed, the
political context is essential."147
Maxwell in 1877:
"Those 'eminent men’, who take upon themselves the task of ignoring any-
thing that contradicts their cherished beliefs, follow 'Scientism', a corruption of
Science that is really a pseudo religion. With so many following it, and preten-
ding it to be Science, it is little wonder the scientific world is in such a sorry
state of affairs."148
Today's "eminent men" are the fundamentalist Einsteinians who apparently see no
d
problem in a theory predicting that two clocks can each run slower than the other . And
that light is a mediumless wonder, a disturbance of nothing propagating through nothing.
As the modern French say:
e
"Plus ça change ..." .
And as the ancient Celts are said to have said:
f
"Omaigodd!"
a
p.46.
b
p.21.
c
Adam Becker (??), Science writer.
d
Strictly: say they see.
e
French proverb: "The more things change, the more they remain the same".
f
A popular expression, believed to be of Celtic origin.
49
APPENDIX
Celestial coordinates
The celestial coordinates of a heavenly body are its celestial longitude and latitude,
the projection of earthly longitude and latitude into outer space, Fig. 0-31.
Gravitational potential
The gravitational potential at a point in space is the negative of the energy required
c
to move unit mass from the point into outer space. For a point at a distance d from a
body of mass M, the component of gravitational potential V(d) due to the body is:
-11
V(d) = – GM/d where G = 6.7x10 (eq.5)
G being Newton's gravitational constant.
a
The Greenwich meridian.
b
At 07:00 hrs.
c
1 kg.
50
Gravitational waves
b
On August 17, 2017 the LIGO and Virgo detectors registered the gravitational wave
event GW170817. It was attributed to a 'kilonova', the in-spiral and merger of two
neutron stars 130 million light years away. 1.7 seconds later the international Fermi
Gamma-ray Space Telescope observed the gamma-ray burst GRB 170817A in the
same direction150.
The near simultaneity of the two means that gravitational waves travel at the speed
of light c. The small difference could be due to electromagnetic waves being retarded by
dense matter – comic dust, etc. – whereas gravitational waves are not.
Interferometer calibration
M&M, Miller
Both Michelson-Morley and Miller used an essentially classical calibration for their
c
interferometers, that didn't take length contraction into account . The overall layout is
d
repeated for convenience in Fig. 33 .
a
Based on a Milky Way of 1.5 trillion solar masses and centre 8 kiloparsecs away. The solar
system is for simplicity assumed to be completely outside it.
b
In the USA and Italy respectively.
c
Proposed by FitzGerald in 1889 and Lorentz in 1892 (p.23), and so known to Miller, but not
M&M at the time of their experiments.
d
Cf Fig. 17.
51
(eq.5)
And an average light speed c1 on this axis:
(eq.6)
b
where is the Lorentz factor .
a
Thomas Young (1773–1829), English phsician and polymath.
b
eq.4, p.23.
52
On the perpendicular axis, let the photon take time t2 to reach the opposite mirror.
During this time it travels a distance ct2 through the aether, and gets blown back a
distance vt2 by the aether headwind, Fig. 0-35. This gives an apparent light speed c2 on
a
this axis :
(eq.7)
(eq.8)
On the 'MMM' (Michelson-Morley and Miller) calibration that doesn't take length
contraction into account, for an aether speed vm, the difference v between the light
c
speeds on the two axes is :
(eq.9)
Whence:
(eq.10)
where the speed difference v is that given by the measured fringe shifts.
This is the relation 'MMM' used to derive their reported aether speeds of vm6.5 and
d
vm8.22 km/s respectively
Cahill
On the Cahill calibration, the speed of light ca in air is:
ca = c/ n (eq.11)
where n is its refractive index.
a
Pythagoras.
b
(v/c)2 << 1.
c
Substituting c1, c2 from eqs 6,7 and from eq.8.
d
pp 14,18.
53
a
Without length contraction, the speed difference v between the two axes would be :
(eq.12)
But since length contraction foreshortens the main axis by , the apparent speed of
b
light on it increases correspondingly, giving an axis speed difference v :
(eq.13)
c
Equating the two expressions for v , the true aether speeds v in terms of their
'MMM' values vm are:
(eq.14)
The refractive index 'n' of air depends on its pressure. Cleveland and Mt Wilson
d
being at 200 m and 1740 m above sea level respectively, their relative pressures are
p=0.989 and p=0.821152.
The refractive index of air at sea-level is n=1.000293153. Taking the 'n–1' component
e
to be proportional to pressure ; the respective refractive indexes of air at the two
locations are n=1.00029 and n=1.000241. Substituting these into eq.14, then gives
correction factors of 41.5 and 45.5 respectively. And applying them to the 'MMM' speeds
f
vm , gives true aether speeds v:
g h
M&M: ve = ~27077 km/s ; Miller : vs = 37463 km/s
Miller
i
An exerpt from Dayton Miller's report on his 1925 Mt Wilson control experiments :
"An extended series of experiments was made to determine the influence of
inequality of temperature in the interferometer room, and of radiant heat
falling on the interferometer. Several electric heaters were used, of the type
having a heated coil near the focus of a concave reflector. Inequalities in the
temperature of the room caused a slow but steady drifting of the fringe
a
Using eqs.8,9.
b
Approximating n1.
c
'MMM's and Cahill's (eqs 9,13).
d
To that at sea level.
e
n 1 + 0.000293p.
f
pp 14,18. Averaging the M&M midday and evening results gives vm=~6.5.
g
Correction factor 41.5.
h
Correction factor 45.5.
i
Miller 1925.
54
system to one side, but caused no periodic displacement. Even when two of
the heaters were placed at a distance of three feet from the interferometer as
it rotated, and were turned to throw the heat directly on the uncovered steel
frame, there was no measurable periodic effect. When the heaters were
turned on to the light-path which had a covering of glass, a periodic effect
could be obtained only when the glass was covered with opaque material in a
very non-symmetrical manner, as when one arm of the interferometer was
completely protected by a covering of corrugated paper-board while the other
arms were unprotected. These experiments proved that under the conditions
of actual observation, the periodic displacement could not possibly be
produced by temperature effects." 154
Reading this, can anyone doubt he was a serious experimenter?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
(cited works only)
Beckman, P. (1987) Einstein Plus Two (Boulder, CO: Golem Press) (http://www.
stephankinsella.com/wp-content/uploads/texts/beckmann_einstein-dissident-physics-
material.pdf)
Cahill, R.T. et al (2002) Michelson-Morley Experiments Revisited and the CMB
(arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0205065)
a
(24 hrs)/(365 days) 4 mins.
55
INDEX
absolute speed, 32 atom, Mach and, 48
aether at-rest, 32
entrainment, 19 Bacon, Francis, 47
luminiferous, 3, 5 Becker, Adam, 49
wind, 12, 32 Beckmann, Petr, 30
agenda, 48 Bell, John, 8
akasha, 3 boat, 6
Alhazen, Ibn, 3 broken mirror, 47
57
1
Fiennes 2020b.
2
cellularuniverse (1811).
3
en.wikipedia/aether (1901).
4
en.wikipedia(1805).
5
Illiad XV.20, XVI.365.
6
Marjanovic (2018).
7
en.wikipedia (1510).
8
en.wikipedia (0910).
9
cs.mcgill (1904).
10
Hughes 2014, p.7.
11
Einstein 1905, p.1.
12
Selleri 2004.
13
Einstein 1920.
14
Fiennes 2020b.
15
Maxwell 1873, p.438.
16
Michelson 1881.
17
Michelson 1907, p.159.
18
See 1920.
19
Poincaré 1900.
20
spaceandmotion.com (1908).
21
teslaresearch.jimdofree (2001).
22
Marjanovic 2018.
23
en.wikipedia (1904).
24
en.wikipedia (1902).
25
en.wikipedia (1901).
26
Michelson 1907, p.164.
27
en.wikipedia (1901).
28
Michelson 1907.
29
en.wikipedia (1901).
30
Michelson 1881.
31
Michelson 1881.
32
hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu (1901).
33
en.wikipedia (1901).
34
en.wikipedia (1901).
35
cellularuniverse (1011).
36
Múnera 1998, p.13; Cahill 2002.
37
Múnera 1998.
38
en.wikipedia (1901).
39
history.aip (1901).
40
en.wikipedia (0906).
41
en.wikipedia (0906).
42
en.wikipedia (0906).
60
43
cellularuniverse (1012).
44
cellularuniverse (1012).
45
sciencedirect (2001).
46
Sagnac 1913.
47
Michelson and Gale 1925.
48
Selleri 2004.
49
Case Western Reserve Archive.
50
Miller 1925.
51
Fiennes 2020b, p.9.
52
en.wikipedia (1901).
53
Cahill 2002, mountainman (1012).
54
Cahill 2003.
55
Miller 1925, figs.2,4.
56
Cahill 2003.
57
Consoli 2019.
58
Michelson 1929.
59
DeMeo 2000.
60
cellularuniverse (1012).
61
en.wikipedia (1012).
62
Consoli 2003.
63
Pais 2005, p.114.
64
cellularuniverse (1012).
65
mountainman (1012).
66
DeMeo 2014.
67
DeMeo 2014.
68
DeMeo 2014.
69
cellularuniverse (1012).
70
DeMeo 2014.
71
Cahil 2006.
72
cellularuniverse (0012).
73
cellularuniverse (0101).
74
Selleri 2004.
75
Cahill 2002.
76
Cahil 2006.
77
Cahil 2002.
78
mountainman (0012).
79
Cahill 2002.
80
academia.edu/38362757; Demjanov 2010.
81
cellularuniverse (1012); orgonelab (1012).
82
Cahill 2003.
83
infinite-energy (1012).
84
suppressedscience (1012), ekkehard-friebe (1008).
85
padrak (1012).
61
86
itis.volta.alessandria (1012).
87
padrak (0012).
88
salon (1012).
89
bourabai.narod (1012).
90
padrak (1012).
91
Hughes 2014, p.xviii.
92
Cahill 2008.
93
On 30/11/1990.
94
Beckmann 1987.
95
Beckmann 1987.
96
Munera 1998.
97
arxiv (1008); cartesio-episteme (1008);
cellularuniverse (1012); mountainman (1012).
98
Fiennes 2020d. Fig.019.
99
Cahill 2003.
100
Cahill 2007.
101
Cahill 2009.
102
Cahill 2003, Fig.6,7.
103
Cahill 2003, Fig.16.
104
Múnera 1998.
105
Cahill 2004.
106
Wikipedia (2001).
107
New Scientist, 31/10/2018.
108
Fiennes 2020b, Figs.20,29.
109
Cf Fiennes 2020b, p.22.
110
Cahill 2003, 2008.
111
Su 2001.
112
Cahill 2011.
113
Fiennes 2020c, p.79.
114
Thomson 1867.
115
Michelson 1907.
116
teslaresearch.jimdofree (2001).
117
galileo.phys.virginia 0908; Robinson 2005, p.96; spaceandmotion 0908.
118
en.wikipedia (2004).
119
hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu (2004).
120
Thomson 1867.
121
Fiennes 2020e, p.2.
122
Fiennes 2020d, p.62.
123
Maxwell 1873, p.437.
124
Einstein 1916.
125
Longair 2020, p.6.
126
Consoli 2019.
62
127
See 1920.
128
On 01/04/2019.
129
en.wikipedia (1901),
130
Thornton 2006, p.24.
131
Thornton 2006, p.25.
132
Fiennes 2020b, p.18.
133
Michelson 1907.
134
Michelson 1907, p.158.
135
Michelson 1907, p.164.
136
Miller 1984, p.32.
137
en.wikiquote (1905).
138
Higgs 2015, p.17.
139
Higgs 2015, p.5.
140
en.wiki (1909).
141
Google, en.wikipedia (1901).
142
artyfactory.com 1901; Higgs 2015, p.41.
143
en.wikipedia (1005).
144
Becker 2018.
145
Fiennes 2020b, p.50.
146
en.wikiquote (0011).
147
physicsworld.com/quantum-heretics (1901).
148
Maxwell 1873.
149
credit: en.wikipedia.
150
forbes, nextbigfuture (2004).
151
home.att 0912.
152
mide (1904).
153
en.wikipedia (1904).
154
Miller 1925.