Re: Evidence of the Existence of the Aether
- From: The Ghost In The Machine <ewill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 02:00:05 GMT
In sci.physics.relativity, cadwgan_gedrych@xxxxxxxxx
<cadwgan_gedrych@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote
on 19 May 2005 08:44:23 -0700
<1116517463.815885.6120@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> "Riap" wrote:
>> Evidence of the Existence of the Aether
> (snip)
>> Such an independence is characteristic of a wavelike
>> disturbance propagating through a medium, it is not
>> characteristic of an entity propagating ballistically
>> through "empty" space.
> (snip)
>
> Experiment proves that light behaves like a bullet
> directionally but not speedwise, so there can be
> no aether.
Pedant point: light isn't a bullet or a wave, but exhibits
characteristics of both. Admittedly, it gets a bit messy
to describe well.
>
> Here is the experiment:
> A laser on the ceiling is aimed directly at a point on the floor.
> When the laser fires a light pulse, it hits the target point.
Pedant point: the size of the spot is at least the Airy radius,
which is at least half the wavelength. This is not a "point",
in the mathematical sense.
> Then the room frame's speed is changed. Given the different room
> frame speed, and given that the laser is still aimed directly at
> the point on the floor, IF there is an aether, THEN the laser pulse
> must - upon emission - travel within the fixed aether, so the pulse
> WOULD MISS THE TARGET POINT.
If the room experiences an acceleration the pulse would indeed miss
the target area (though not by a heck of a lot, as lasers are
very high speed :-) ). Of course, once the room stops accelerating
(but is still moving) the laser, assuming the acceleration hasn't
mechanically shifted it out of position, will hit the target again.
>
> However, when this experiment is actually performed, the pulse ALWAYS
> hits the target, thereby proving that there is no aether. Instead, the
> pulse is carried along with the room, so it always hits the target
> regardless of room velocity.
>
One would hope so, since we're moving with an absolute velocity (if
one hypothesizes an absolute origin) by any reasonable metric.
The Earth is rotating.
The Earth is revolving around the barycenter.
The Moon is mucking things up a bit.
The Sun and entourage is moving up and down through the
galactic plane and in a rather irregular orbit around
the galactic center.
Who knows what the Milky Way and its local group are doing?
I don't.
Of course one way around this is to hypothesize a frictionless
aether and lightspeed of c relative to the source. Of course,
once one hypothesizes a frictionless aether, one might as well
simply dispense with the aether totally (since it doesn't
interact with matter). It also turns out that lightspeed is
c relative to the destination, too.
--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
It's still legal to go .sigless.
.
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