Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The only aether which has survived is that which was invented by Huygens to explain the propagation of light. By the early 20th century, aether theory was in trouble. A series of increasingly complex experiments had been carried out in the late 19th century to try to detect the motion of the Earth through the aether, and had failed to do so. A ...
According to ancient and medieval science, aether (/ ˈ iː θ ər /, alternative spellings include æther, aither, and ether), also known as the fifth element or quintessence, is the material that fills the region of the universe beyond the terrestrial sphere. [1]
In the 19th century, luminiferous aether (or ether), meaning light-bearing aether, was a theorized medium for the propagation of light. James Clerk Maxwell developed a model to explain electric and magnetic phenomena using the aether, a model that led to what are now called Maxwell's equations and the understanding that light is an ...
4th-century BC – Aristotle publishes Physics, in which the aether is briefly described as being an element lighter than air that surrounds celestial bodies.He describes the aether in relation to other elements – aether is lighter than air and is located above it, whereas air is lighter than water, and water is lighter than earth.
The classical elements typically refer to earth, water, air, fire, and (later) aether which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Ancient cultures in Greece , Angola , Tibet , India , and Mali had similar lists which sometimes referred, in local languages, to "air" as "wind ...
And referring to the Fizeau experiment, he even wrote: "The aether is all but in our grasp." He also said the aether is necessary to harmonize Lorentz's theory with Newton's third law. Even in 1912 in a paper called "The Quantum Theory", Poincaré ten times used the word "aether", and described light as "luminous vibrations of the aether". [A 19]
Maxwell's original equations are based on the idea that light travels through a sea of molecular vortices known as the "luminiferous aether", and that the speed of light has to be respective to the reference frame of this aether. Measurements designed to measure the speed of the Earth through the aether conflicted with this notion, though. [c]
Aether (mythology), the personification of the bright upper sky; Aether (classical element), the material believed to fill the universe above the terrestrial sphere Aether theories, proposing space-filling substance that propagates electromagnetic or gravitational forces; Luminiferous aether, the postulated medium for the propagation of light