Evidence for the existence of the ether

✍ Scribed by James Mackaye

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1932
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 958 KB
• Volume: 213
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/s0016-0032(32)90449-9

✦ Synopsis

An impression prevails in these days that the ether postulated by Newton, Faraday, Kelvin, Maxwell and Lorentz is a figment of the imagination--that the theory of relativity through its prophets Einstein, Eddington, Jeans and others has shown it to be non-existent and its assumption an anachronism. This impression is a mistaken one, for it can easily be shown that Faraday himself was no more insistent that the ether exists than Eddington and Einstein. Thus Eddington says:

"The most formidable objection to this relativist view of the world is the ether difficulty .... Some would cut the knot by denying the ether altogether. We do not consider that desirable, or so far as we can see, possible." 1 And Einstein confirms him in the following declaration:

"According to the general theory of relativity space without etlfer 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 in the physical sense." 2 * Presented at meeting held Thursday,