Ether Definition and 101 Threads

In 2005, Robert B. Laughlin (Physics Nobel Laureate, Stanford University), wrote about the nature of space: "It is ironic that Einstein's most creative work, the general theory of relativity, should boil down to conceptualizing space as a medium when his original premise [in special relativity]...

I read on the forum that: "Michelson-Morley results strongly suggested the local speed of light being the same in all reference frames." I think that's an erroneous understanding. MME only suggested that there is no ether because speed of light is not affected in any direction and remained the...

How was it justified before conducting the MICHELSON–MORLEY experiment to assume that the sun was at rest with respect to the ether? Also, was the ether assumed to have the same velocity with respect to the Earth throughout space at one instant in time, or like wind, with different velocities at...

https://cds.cern.ch/record/539311/files/ext-2002-016.pdf What was the composition of ether according to the ancients? [Non-English reference deleted by the Mentors]

Hope this question can be quickly clarified: There was a statement that the General Relativity can be interpreted by speaking of an ether whose state varies from point to point. Is this correct?!

I am reading pretty much everywhere that LET (Lorentz Ether Theory, or call it Neo-Lorentzian Relativity, or whatever theory that involves a preferred undetectable frame with some yet unknown properties that make all the moving objects with respect to this frame length contact and time dilate)...

Hi, I'm I supposed to find an ether with acidic hydrogens or a very strong electrophilic centre? I'm trying with acidic H but it doesn't seem to be working... Please help me thank you!

Over the course of the last three years I have explored the æther visually and physically and it's been an exhilarating and mind-expanding experience. It's been frustrating, too, because no one else seems to be able to see what I am seeing and manipulating every day. I am no crack-pot, I'm a...

Hey everyone, I've read in an article that Newton's 3rd law proves that there is no ether in space. It says, according to Newton's 3rd law, the mass of the space between objects should be 0; then, ether does not actually exist. Could you please explain to me why Newton's 3rd law imply that the...

This is purely a historical question that came up in another thread. I always thought LET was the theory put forward by Lorentz that said the Lorentz-Fitzgerald formula contracts objects moving through the aether. Clocks slowed down due to a shortening of their components. Light was an...

I bought the book "The principle of Relativity" by Einstein et al. and was really surprised by the (low) level of explanation by Lorentz regarding the compression of rods on the experiment carried out by Michelson & Morley. I reproduce part of it below: Well, he gave absolutely no arguments to...

So in this video, this cyclic ether steals a Hydrogen off HBr. That gives it a +1 formal charge, so it breaks the ring open and steals the electrons from the Carbon to alleviate the formal charge. Carbon then has a formal charge which bonds to the Bromide anion that was formed from when it...

Hi people! May be this could be an historical question. Before Einstein, it is suppoused that speed of light in ether is always the same, I´m right? I mean, if observer O is at rest respect ether and observer O´ is moving respect ether and O´ send a photon to O, the speed at which that photon...

Little confusion regarding one line on Resnick's book! This says light dragged by refractive medium ok but how 'by the ether'? In the rest of the topic he says ether is stationary with respect to the observer(i.e. not dragged along by the water and that is how the Fresnel's exp. was explained).

Homework Statement Sorry for so many questions! Draw and name all of the structural isomers that are ketones with five carbon atoms in its longest chain and the molecular formula C5H10O . Can this molecular formula also have an aldehyde structure? If so, illustrate and name the aldehyde. Can...

From the book - Introduction to special relativity, Robert Resnick, I learned that it was assumed at that time that speed of light is c in ether frame. And so, there was a need to find out ether frame. I am assuming that ether frame is an inertial frame . Speed of light in vacuum could have...

My question is very simple. As far as I know, once upon a time there was the Lorentz Ether Theory. This theory admitted existence of so-called Ether as a certain preferred frame, which was undetectable because of physical contraction of moving material bodies in direction of their motion. In...

I just learned how stellar abberation and the ether theory while studying Robert resnick's book. What I'm thinking is how the sky would look IF ether were to exist and be dragged along the Earth as it revolved the sun. Since Earth's local supply of ether is moving along with it i.e. rest w.r.t...

From everything that I have read, it seems fairly non-controversial that there is no Ether and that the only thing that remains constant (or that can be consistently measured against) is the speed of light. But how do we measure the speed of light? If the speed of light is constant, isn't...

<<Moderators note: Discussion split from: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/motivation-for-the-introduction-of-spacetime.866669/>> You think the violation of Bell's inequality is not a serious challenge? You have to give up realism as well as causality if you want to defend the...

why ether medium fail in michelson morley experiment?

I heard that if Aether was real it would simplify many things in science, what exactly would it simplify?

I just had an extraction lab, and am confused how methyl red is soluble in both water and ether. My prediction was that methyl red would be only soluble in ether, but it actually dissolved into both layers. Looking at it's structure, it has a carboxylic group on one end, attached to a chain...

Homework Statement Which will undergo faster Williamson ether syntehsis It was either faster or better, I'm not sure A)3-Chlorobutan-1-ene B)1-Bromobutane Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution I thought option A because of its alylic position it will form a stable carbocation (and...

DaleSpam submitted a new PF Insights post PF's policy on Lorentz Ether Theory and Block Universe Continue reading the Original PF Insights Post.

Please forgive me, I have no idea about this subject/topic at all. My job requires me to degrease metal components from time to time. I currently use Petroleum Ether in small quantities in a glass bowl to wash components with. I have had no side effects so far but after looking at the label...

I have found this paper, it seems interesting although i haven't read it all yet arXiv:1507.00460 [pdf] Dark matter, Mach's ether and the QCD vacuum Gilles Cohen-Tannoudji Subjects: History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph); Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)

Think about an electric charged object moves linely, it will produce current hence the magnetic field. But if the obserser moves together with the electron charged object, so there is no relative movement between them, that means the electric charged object is static to the observer, hence...

Hi Guys, I'm solving this for almost a week, this is a part of our probset in chemical kinetics: The thermal decomposition of dimethyl ether: CH3OCH3 ---K1--> CH3' + OCH3' CH3' + CH3OCH3 ---K2--> CH4 + CH2OCH3' CH2OCH3' + --k3---> CH3' + HCHO CH3' + CH2OCH3' ---k4--> C2H5OCH3 using steady-state...

I have a question about this reaction, I don't exactly know what I'm going to get (University coursework question). Reaction C4H10O + CaSO4 + HF --> ?

Yes, the title of this thread has sounded the crackpot alarm! Anyway, I'm curious for your thoughts and suggested readings... As background, I've learned that Neo-Lorentzian Ether Theory is a valid alternate for Einstein's Special Relativity. This ether is undetectable, but does in imply a...

Please look at attachments. The book's answer seems way off. Where is there starting halide!? I posted my solution (I made a typo there. It is not EtO- but CH3O-).

Hi, I have a thought experiment I'd like to share along with a couple of quotes. First, we consider the moment when a body goes from have exactly zero charge to a +Q charge. At that moment, by definition of E field a distance r from point charge q, we have a field propagating from point...

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delbr%C3%BCck_scattering " ... based on the relativistic quantum mechanics of Dirac according to which the QED vacuum is filled with ... electron-positron pairs ...[which] should be capable of producing coherent-elastic photon scattering..." If...

Is There any impact/will there be any: of the concept of Einstein’s New Ether in science today? I red that even though Einstein rejected aether in his relativity theory he introduced it back in 1920 to explain his theory of gravity. I don't know if he ever published it as a theory or it has...

The theory of relativity makes an 'ether' superfluous, but does it challenge the existence of an 'Ether'. Could the ether be an electromagnetic field or some other unknowable? Or is space-time a kind of ether? Its hard to understand light or even probability waves without a medium in which...

Homework Statement "The Michelson-Morley experiment was conducted using an interferometer with L1 = L2 = 40m, lambda = 632nm, and maximum fringe separation d = 0.0022 fringes. Find the upper bound on the relative speed of the Earth and the ether, and clearly state the significance of the...

Hi, I make a pyridine salt which contains the pyridine and an organic weak acid. The standard procedure to isolate the acid and remove the pyridine is to dissolve the salt in Diethyl ether with HCL, and let the diethy ether evaporate, which leaves the organic acid crystals with purity 99%...

Homework Statement My question is part C of problem 1.9: http://facultyfiles.deanza.edu/gems/lunaeduardo/4DHW.PDF Homework Equations Pythagorean Theorem? The Attempt at a Solution I have c vector of lightwave going upwards and v going rightwards forming a right angle with the other...

Homework Statement Explain the difference in the following properties of dimethyl ether and ethanol: 1) Solubility in water 2) Rate of evaporation Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution 1) Due to the oxygen being bonded to 2 carbon atoms none of the hydrogen atoms in the...

EM radiation seems like a wave traveling through spacetime so, why isn't spacetime the same as ether?

Homework Statement The problem given was to find out the resulting compound of this Wurtz reaction process using dry ether (Na). Homework Equations Now the main problem I faced was how to remove the Cl-atom and Br-atom. I am new to this so please help me out. The Attempt at a...

Hello, I am doing an experiment in which I will have a halophenol, and with KOH in ethanol and an alkyl tosylate, I will need to create an ether. The first step is to add the KOH and alkyl tosylate, and I should almost have an ether (ring with halogen attached to it and an OR hanging off...

Length Contraction "Ether wind" Homework Statement Due to the ether wind, anything that moves along it is "contracted". The Attempt at a Solution Taking L1 to be contracted length, (L1)2 = (L1x)2 + (L1Y)2 = (L10,X/γ)2 + (L10,Y)2But what they wrote is the opposite..

I have never understood why this experiment is so generally cited as demonstrating the non-existence of "ether." (To be clear here, I am not suggesting that ether exists, I am just frustrated that I cannot seem to appreciate this landmark experiment.) My understanding of the experiment is that...

I'm quite confused on this. According to Lorentz's ether theory, he used the immobile stationary ether as an absolute frame of reference. In that case, why would the Lorentz transforms be required, since there are no relative reference frames?

Max Born, in his book "Einstein's Theory of Relativity", keeps referring to the luminiferous ether repeatedly, as if it were real. The book was published in 1920, it had been definitively proved by 1890 that no such thing as the ether existed. Can anyone tell why does Born keep going on with it?

Hi all, I have few questions regarding Higgs boson and ether model. I wanted to know :- 1.What if "ether" == Higgs Boson? 2.The experiment done earlier to detect ether around the Earth failed because we don't know how to detect that medium? 3. On the question of "Drag" , Please...

I've been interested for a while in the nature of space-time. It's been a long time since anybody talked seriously about the "ether". The concept seems to have been thrown away into the darkest corners of physics after the famous Michelson-Morely expermient. However it seems to me like space...

Michelson Morley experiment was sought to find out Earth's motion through ether, which allegedly produced ether wind. Thus the time required for two rays of light would be different, thereby producing interference pattern. Since Earth revolves arouns sun, and sun revolves around something else...