Re: Evidence of the Existence of the Aether

In sci.physics.relativity, Harry
<harald.vanlintel@xxxxxxx>
wrote
on Mon, 23 May 2005 10:56:59 +0200
<42919a7e$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>
> "The Ghost In The Machine" <ewill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
> message news:v1rvl2-j5f.ln1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> 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.
>
> The comparison is misleading: a bullet is an object, while a wave is an
> abstraction that corresponds to observational models. Bullets supposedly
> have wave properties themselves, it's just not noticable due to their
> relatively large size.

Waves are real enough; ask anyone who's been on a certain cruise
ship which had 7 stories bashed out. I don't think anyone was
killed (I hope not anyway). On a slightly less threatening
level, there are issues such as diffraction that are easily
measured for light quanta -- and presumably for electrons
as well. There's also the infamous double-slit experiment.

>
>> > 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.
>
> Nonsense, and the error is easy to detect:
> Choose a third independent frame and describe the experiment from that
> frame. If you do it well, it should again hit the target point both times.
> Next assume that frame to be at rest wrt "the ether", and think again.
>
>> 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.
>
> As GPS experiments confirmed, it's neither c wrt the source nor wrt the
> receiver.

Eh?

I don't know regarding the source (the satellite) but most experiments
show c relative to both places, with an odd (but entirely in accordance
with the Lorentz) time-twist/frequency adjustment.

>
> Harald
>
>


--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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.

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