Light has not been observed traveling in perfect vacuums. This undermines the necessity of both aether and Einstein's relativity
Written by Carl Janssen 2018 January 11
Light has not been observed traveling in perfect vacuums. This undermines the necessity of both aether and Einstein's relativity
The word aether can be replaced with the phrase "medium that is almost a perfect vacuum but is not a perfect vacuum." Traveling through this medium that is almost a perfect vacuum could produce similar mathematical results to that of the Lorentz Aether Transformation. Einstein's relativity may have borrowed strongly from the Lorentz Aether Transformation except one reason people prefer Einstein's relativity is it does not involve aether, there are also other reasons of preference however including but not limited to it being more widely socially acceptable to refer to Einstein's theories.
Albert Einstein presented the theories of special relativity and general relativity in publications that either contained no formal references to previous literature, or referred only to a small number of his predecessors for fundamental results on which he based his theories, most notably to the work of Hendrik Lorentz for special relativity,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_priority_dispute
Outer space has very low density and pressure, and is the closest physical approximation of a perfect vacuum. But no vacuum is truly perfect, not even in interstellar space, where there are still a few hydrogen atoms per cubic meter.[
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum#Measurement
Light has not been observed traveling in perfect vacuums. This undermines the necessity of both aether and Einstein's relativity
The word aether can be replaced with the phrase "medium that is almost a perfect vacuum but is not a perfect vacuum." Traveling through this medium that is almost a perfect vacuum could produce similar mathematical results to that of the Lorentz Aether Transformation. Einstein's relativity may have borrowed strongly from the Lorentz Aether Transformation except one reason people prefer Einstein's relativity is it does not involve aether, there are also other reasons of preference however including but not limited to it being more widely socially acceptable to refer to Einstein's theories.
Albert Einstein presented the theories of special relativity and general relativity in publications that either contained no formal references to previous literature, or referred only to a small number of his predecessors for fundamental results on which he based his theories, most notably to the work of Hendrik Lorentz for special relativity,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_priority_dispute
Outer space has very low density and pressure, and is the closest physical approximation of a perfect vacuum. But no vacuum is truly perfect, not even in interstellar space, where there are still a few hydrogen atoms per cubic meter.[
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum#Measurement
- Deep space is generally much more empty than any artificial vacuum. It may or may not meet the definition of high vacuum above, depending on what region of space and astronomical bodies are being considered. For example, the MFP of interplanetary space is smaller than the size of the Solar System, but larger than small planets and moons. As a result, solar winds exhibit continuum flow on the scale of the Solar System, but must be considered a bombardment of particles with respect to the Earth and Moon.
- Perfect vacuum is an ideal state of no particles at all. It cannot be achieved in a laboratory, although there may be small volumes which, for a brief moment, happen to have no particles of matter in them. Even if all particles of matter were removed, there would still be photons and gravitons, as well as dark energy, virtual particles, and other aspects of the quantum vacuum. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum#Measurement
Physics theories of the late 19th century assumed that just as surface water waves must have a supporting substance, i.e. a "medium", to move across (in this case water), and audible sound requires a medium to transmit its wave motions (such as air or water), so light must also require a medium, the "luminiferous aether", to transmit its wave motions. Because light can travel through a vacuum, it was assumed that even a vacuum must be filled with aether.
Special relativity
Albert Einstein formulated the theory of special relativity by 1905, deriving the Lorentz transformation and thus length contraction and time dilation from the relativity postulate and the constancy of the speed of light, thus removing the ad hoc character from the contraction hypothesis. Einstein emphasized the kinematic foundation of the theory and the modification of the notion of space and time, with the stationary aether no longer playing any role in his theory. He also pointed out the group character of the transformation. Einstein was motivated by Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism (in the form as it was given by Lorentz in 1895) and the lack of evidence for the luminiferous aether.[A 22]
This allows a more elegant and intuitive explanation of the Michelson-Morley null result. In a comoving frame the null result is self-evident, since the apparatus can be considered as at rest in accordance with the relativity principle, thus the beam travel times are the same. In a frame relative to which the apparatus is moving, the same reasoning applies as described above in "Length contraction and Lorentz transformation", except the word "aether" has to be replaced by "non-comoving inertial frame".
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