Re: A little challenge for relativists.


John Kennaugh wrote:
> A little challenge for relativists.
>
> The idea that the speed of light was unaffected by the speed of the
> source came from belief in the ether which said that it could not be
> affected by the source because it was constant w.r.t the ether.
>
> Maxwell's ether theory failed in two respects firstly MMX where the
> prediction that the observers motion relative to the ether would effect
> the measured speed of light was found to be false and secondly the
> failure of Maxwell's em theory to explain black body radiation which was
> explained by Planck who showed light to be generated in discreet lumps.
> Finally the photoelectric effect showed that light remained in Planck's
> discreet lumps each individually capable of knocking electrons out of
> metal. This suggests that at a more fundamental level light is made up
> of particles, particles have no requirement for an ether and one might
> reasonably interpret MMX as indicating that there is none.

<< Millikan's paper is not at all, as we might now
naturally consider it to be, an experimental proof
of the quantum theory of light. Although Millikan
admits that the facts seem ''to demand some modification
of classical theory,'' (p. 355) that is not what he
is willing to attempt here. And in truth, Einstein
himself, from the beginning, was not comfortable
with the quantum theory of light, calling it, in a
letter of May 1905 to his friend Conrad Habicht,
''very revolutionary.'' It was the only time he so
characterized any of his work, using the phrase because
his was still only a ''heuristic'' proposal, devoid of
sufficient theoretical grounding. >>
http://www.europhysicsnews.com/full/03/article3/article3.html

Sue...

>
> In view of this maybe you can help me by completing the following:
>
> "As a modern physicist I completely reject the idea of the ether but I
> still believe Einstein was justified in assuming source independence
> because ..........".
>
> --
> John Kennaugh
> to email convert the number from hex to decimal

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Evidence of the Existence of the Aether
    ... >> Citation for aether theories that did account for MMX, ... > Are you saying that no ether theories prior to MMX could ... Not according to the Relativists in this newsgroup. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: Relativity as an axiomatic system
    ... > Bill Hobba writes ... > such thing in the physical world as a FoR yet relativists talk as if ... > Source independent follows from a belief in the ether. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: Relativity as an axiomatic system
    ... thing in the physical world as a FoR yet relativists talk as if there ... There is no absolute velocity all you know is ... Source independent follows from a belief in the ether. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: The Farce that is Called Henri Wilson
    ... However if both source and observer are both moving at the same velocity relative to the medium i.e. they are a fixed distance apart the 2 way speed of light would very nearly equal to c and that was the only way c could be measured. ... If you assume that that is because there is no ether then logically it means that the speed of light must be constant w.r.t the source because there is nothing else it can be constant w.r.t. ... The thing which Paul and other relativists miss is the fact that the progression of thought which led us to where we are today was not an acceptance of there being 'no ether'. ... Lorentz found a fix for the wave ether theory and Einstein made clear that his work followed on from that of Lorentz. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: Why is the speed of light as it is
    ... >>But the relativists deny the existence of an ether and the etherists deny ... >>the existence of more than one ether. ... Thyere is no need for time or physical length contractions. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)