- #1
B100110
Hey. I'm currently studying philosophy of physics and was looking around to find something I need. Basically I'm looking through the history of science to find cases where a theory posited entities that were supposed to have existed but failed. In other words, the theory had some true predictions, was somewhat verified and was then rejected because the entities it posited didn't exist.
The main one I'm looking at is the 19th century aether theory. EM radiations are waves. Back then, scientists assumed that since EM radiation is waves then there must be a medium. It was pretty much unfathomable to have waves independent of a medium (I know that currently some scientists posit the space-time continuum as the 'aether', but that's irrelevant for me). Aether was discredited by the Michelson and Morely experiment. My only problem with this is that even though aether was considered somewhat of a necessity back then, I couldn't find any scientist of that time writing about the topic (probably because it was very short lived).
Are there any such theories in physics or chemistry where an entity was indispensable to the theory and then the entity turned out to be false even though the theory has some true predictions?
Thanks
The main one I'm looking at is the 19th century aether theory. EM radiations are waves. Back then, scientists assumed that since EM radiation is waves then there must be a medium. It was pretty much unfathomable to have waves independent of a medium (I know that currently some scientists posit the space-time continuum as the 'aether', but that's irrelevant for me). Aether was discredited by the Michelson and Morely experiment. My only problem with this is that even though aether was considered somewhat of a necessity back then, I couldn't find any scientist of that time writing about the topic (probably because it was very short lived).
Are there any such theories in physics or chemistry where an entity was indispensable to the theory and then the entity turned out to be false even though the theory has some true predictions?
Thanks