- #1
accidentprone
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I have been reading up on the luminiferous aether as a background to the Michelson-Morley experiment of 1887. I am currently stuck on understanding a point in Stoke's model of the aether ( The "Silly-putty model")
Everywhere I have searched online mentions how he proposed that the aether should be rigid at high frequencies yet fluid at lower velocities. I understand why the model needed to be fluid for objects at lower speeds - to not impede the passage of planets. However I don't see why it needed to be postulated that the aether must be solid and incompressible to allow for light waves to pass through it?
Everywhere I have searched online mentions how he proposed that the aether should be rigid at high frequencies yet fluid at lower velocities. I understand why the model needed to be fluid for objects at lower speeds - to not impede the passage of planets. However I don't see why it needed to be postulated that the aether must be solid and incompressible to allow for light waves to pass through it?