Why was the concept of aether discarded in the study of light and motion?

[Adrian07]

Sorry George unfortunately that the way my mind works. It is most annoying at times especially when reading books, you read something which sends the mind off on a what if tangent and you have to read 1/2 page over. I am not interested in the fact 2+2=4, I want to know why that is so. Problem is I am on my own, doesn't tend to happen in conversation. I need to build a picture of what is going on which means understanding what is right and discarding what is wrong, however how do you decide between right and wrong, all arguments have 2 sides I am probably one of the few people that can see the pros and cons of both sides have an argument with myself and still leave things unresolved due to lack of information. I am in this position partly because you read one thing that is presented as true which you later find to be inaccurate. I get the impression from the rules that einstein would have been banned from this site as a crackpot which limits disscussions severely, if theories like aether have been discarded in the past I need to know why to check nothing was overlooked, we have dark matter and dark energy to find an explanation for.

As far as the swimmer goes you don't need to work the maths out to see what is being said.
Post 59 point 1 tells me that light waves are not what I thought, it does not really tell me what they are so that sends me on a speculative journey
Point 2 is obvious so requires no further thought
Point 3 is no help at all.
Point 4 takes us back to waves and photons which I thought you said were unrelated. I will have to check earlier post.

 

[Drakkith]

Please, don't bring Einstein into this. You have no idea what you are talking about.

You need to learn basic physics before you need to know why the aether idea was discarded. The reason why is because you don't understand enough to know why the aether idea was discarded when you are told why!

I need to build a picture of what is going on which means understanding what is right and discarding what is wrong, however how do you decide between right and wrong, all arguments have 2 sides I am probably one of the few people that can see the pros and cons of both sides have an argument with myself and still leave things unresolved due to lack of information.

Pick up a physics book and read it. That will immediately tell you what is right.

 

[harrylin]

[..] if theories like aether have been discarded in the past I need to know why to check nothing was overlooked, we have dark matter and dark energy to find an explanation for.

Ether is not a theory but a concept, a class of models, which has been discarded by most people because it is not needed for the calculations. If you would like to invent your own model (for yourself, not on this forum), then you need to know how the calculations work to which your model must fit. Or if you want to know how Lorentz's model worked in the context of special relativity, you can ask here (see again the Rules: "discussion in a purely historical context").

As far as the swimmer goes you don't need to work the maths out to see what is being said.

The equations that you did not understand are the same for the swimmers as for MMX, and with further explanation these calculations and related explanations will get more complex - too complex for most people to correctly understand the physics merely from reading "what is being said". Without doing the math, most people cannot get much further than the level of understanding of the ancient Greek philosophers.