What do pervading and aether mean?

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The terms "pervading" and "aether" refer to concepts in Newton's view of light, where "pervading" means filling or being everywhere, and "aether" is the hypothetical substance believed to fill the universe. While the original poster seeks clarity on these terms in the context of Newton's work, it is noted that Newton himself did not support the idea of aether, as particles do not require a medium to propagate. The concept of light as a wave traveling through "luminiferous aether" was actually proposed by Christian Huygens. The discussion highlights the distinction between particle and wave theories of light. Understanding these terms is essential for grasping early theories of light propagation.
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What do "pervading" and "aether" mean?

What do "pervading" and "aether" mean in: "Isaac Newton considered light to be a beam of particles that set the pervading aether vibrating." ?

I'm not taking a Quantum Mechanics course but I might in the future but either way, I'm interested in learning about it so I bought this book and that's the very first sentence and I already don't get it lol. Could someone please break this down so I can understand it?

Thanks in advance!
 
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The "aether" was simply the substance that Newton believed filled the universe. "Pervading" simply means "filling" or "is everywhere".
 


Thanks!
 


I don't think Newton believed in aether though. Particles do not need a medium to propagate. Waves do. The hypothesis that light was some kind of wave propagating through the "luminiferous aether" (from lumen = light in latin) was put forward by Christian Huygens.
 


Dickfore said:
Waves do.
So I guess you consider the vacuum a medium.
 

Thread 'Two equivalent statements of time reversal symmetric Hamiltonian'

Time reversal invariant Hamiltonians must satisfy ##[H,\Theta]=0## where ##\Theta## is time reversal operator. However, in some texts (for example see Many-body Quantum Theory in Condensed Matter Physics an introduction, HENRIK BRUUS and KARSTEN FLENSBERG, Corrected version: 14 January 2016, section 7.1.4) the time reversal invariant condition is introduced as ##H=H^*##. How these two conditions are identical?
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