Re: Reflections on Aether

From: Harry (harald.vanlintel_at_epfl.ch)
Date: 08/30/04 

Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 17:42:11 +0200

"Bilge" <dubious@radioactivex.lebesque-al.net> wrote in message
news:slrncj6fih.kn.dubious@radioactivex.lebesque-al.net...
> Paul Stowe:
>
> > Maxwell's aether IS what brought about the realization that locally,
> > the aether is Lorentz Covariant.
>
> No it isn't and despite my repeated requests for you to prove that
> statement, you have refused to do so.

A negative statement like that is just as much an allegation. Where did you
prove it?

> Let's see a derivation. You've also
> stated that the aharanov-bohm effect can be understood in terms in
> maxwell's ether. Let's see you demonstrate that, too. Since the
> aharanov-bohm effect cannot be derived from maxwell's equations _at_
> _all_, regardless of what you do, I'd realy like to see you try deriving
> it. I predict that you'll do none of the above.

Bilge, understanding is not necessarily limited to mathematics...

> > Both Lorentz in 1904 AND Einstein in 1905 placed this fact above all
> > others as the necessity FOR their works.
>
> That isn't so. Einstein's first postulate does not favor any particular
> equations for any phenomena. It makes no difference whether maxwell's
> equations hold or not. The second postulate was chosen specifically to
> provide a _geometrical basis for maxwell's equations as a natural
> consequence of spacetime.

I think that you are right that Einstein did not place anything of Maxwel's
ether to the foreground in 1905.
But it's nonsense to claim instead that in 1905 he chose the second
postulate as a consequence of spacetime!

Cheers,
Harald

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Reflections on Aether
    ... >> the aether is Lorentz Covariant. ... Einstein's first postulate does not favor any particular ... The second postulate was chosen specifically to ... > consequence of spacetime. ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: Photon, Momentum, Mass
    ... All the preamble is in justification of the first postulate. ... Classically everyone fully expected the MMX to have a positive result. ... According to Maxwell it should only give a null result if the apparatus is stationary w.r.t the aether. ... The second postulate or at least that way of thinking was widely accepted at the time because whatever variation they tried the MMX never detected any motion w.r.t the aether - it appeared always stationary w.r.t. the aether. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: Reflections on Aether
    ... >>postulate as a consequence of spacetime! ... I said that the second postulate was there to explain maxwell's ... > second postulate is irrelevant to relativity. ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: Reflections on Aether
    ... >>postulate as a consequence of spacetime! ... I said that the second postulate was there to explain maxwell's ... > second postulate is irrelevant to relativity. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: Photons
    ... is apparently not permissible in your mind that *spacetime itself* ... One might say that the aether is the stuff of spacetime, ... Your position, I take it, is that you accept as a *postulate* ... It seems to me that having dispensed with the aether physics has lost ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
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