techstepgenr8tion wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
Apple_in_my_Eye wrote:
I think the OP's question is, does SR have anything to say about the "aether" not existing?
The possible answers would be:
1) SR reinforces the lack of the existence of the luminiferous aether.
or
2) SR has nothing to say about the matter.
My cognitive faculties are scrambled tonight, so I don't know the answer.
Er wait, maybe I can manage a coherent thought, here...
SR contains as an axiom that the speed of light is the same for all inertial observers (all non-accelerating observers, basically). So, I think that right there shoots down the aether.
That is, if you tried the Michelson-Morley experiment as a thought experiment and analyzed it from the POV of SR then M-M would give you a negative result.
S.R. in no wise requires aether to carry light waves. The MMX settled the matter of luminiferous aether for good.
ruveyn
Apple did effectively nail the question behind my inquiry. The reason I ask; I see claims online that it isn't a closed case via M-M and that altitude has changed results suggesting that such a medium would float with the earths surface at ground level. I wanted to get more info from those who know a bit about this before taking anyone's word for it. Needless to say discovery of an aether could yield truly wild implications not to mention the potential for applied technology. I'm agnostic on the matter but just wanted an educated opinion check.
SR renders the whole notion of an aether superfluous. Basically, since a light beam can be measured to travel at the same speed regardless of your own speed relative to it, the aether is no longer needed to provide a reference frame with respect to which we measure it's speed. The aether was initially proposed because Maxwell's equations for the classical theory of electromagnetism predicted that waves of electromagnetic fields would travel at precisely the speed of light (as measured at the time), but without reference to a reference frame with respect to which it would be measured (as required by Newtonian physics, also Maxwell naturally concluded that light itself was such an electromagnetic wave). So, the aether was proposed as a medium for these electromagnetic waves as well as reference frame with respect which their speed may be measured. However, since space and time in special relativity are no longer absolute and the speed of a light beam travels at the same speed regardless of the reference frame it is measured from, the aether is no longer needed and got cut by Occam's Razer. Incidentally though, a few scientists still clung to the idea of an aether in the early 20th century because they could not imagine how waves could travel without a medium.
24 Jul 2012, 10:30 am
