What is Aether? A history of the debate about the substance of the universe by Jeff Yee.

Space is considered by scientists to be empty but for many centuries it was believed to contain a material known as the #aether - a medium for transporting waves such as #light and #gravity.

One experiment in 1887 changed everything. Today, it is believed that the aether does not exist. Have we been misled by an experiment that failed to detect the aether? How else can we explain the interactions of waves that travel the universe if there is nothing that allows it to "wave" in empty space?

For the crytpo enthusiasts familiar with Ethereum, note that "ether" and "aether" are two different spellings of the same thing. Aether is the original term used by the Greeks.

[trentonoliver]

It is a Minecraft mod that we all used to believe to be an actual thing and tried to build a portal for it

[ldblod]

It’s seems common sense to me that as it is with every single medium. A wave cannot travel if there is no medium to pass through. In space light travels and it changes color and wave length depending what medium it is going through. It almost seems like common sense to believe that space is simply not empty, but rather filled with different particle at different temperatures and pressures. A “new kind of medium” for light and other things to travel through.

[cdscan]

There is a big difference between failing to detect something vs. proving it doesn't exist. The ether provides a very simple way to explain what Electric Fields and Magnetic Fields are made of, why some "particles" are massless, removes the duality of light mystery, and what gravity is. It also makes it easy to discuss longitudinal propagation at speeds much higher than the traditional speed of light. However it means putting away a century of superstitious belief systems embedded in Physics. It is very embarrassing and inconvenient.... The mathematics works both ways.

[Arkane]

Nikola Tesla talked about the aether and his understanding of it is probably one of the keys to all his inventions...

[truthbetold]

They didn't fail, they simply proved the earth was motionless. Sagnac proved the existence of the Aether. Einstein had to say there was no aether to maintain the heliocentric lie

[GiraelCS]

I would suggest looking up Norbert Feist's ultrasonic Michelson-Morley experiment. I believe the core assumptions applied in the original MM experiment about the expected nature of wave propagation in mechanical media is the crux of the issue of the null result.
Mr. Feist's experiment indicates that mechanical waves (in air), measured in an analogous way to EM waves in the MM experiment (sent from a source to a reflective surface and bounced back to the detector next to the source), result in a two-way (average) speed that does depend on (decrease with) the velocity of the measurement system relative to the medium, however it is spacially ISOTROPIC, therefore it cannot be detected with an interferometer.
If we can explain how this happens in mechanical media, then we can extrapolate and use it to reconstruct a new model of the Aether with this principle in mind, so that it's finally consistent with the MM experiments and, consequently, with all experiments testing the so called Lorentz's invariance. All that while still allowing for superluminal speed, as well as absolute space and time.

[acid]

"What is aether?"
Genshin impact and minecraft:``Hello there, I'd like to introduce myself``

[kingcosworth]

I'm sure the Aether absolutely exists and has zero density. The concept of something existing with no mass seems greatly counter-intuitive but the fact is electromagnetic fields absolutely exist and are measurable, but have zero mass, the field has to be travel through something. Aether and gravity are intertwined. It's amazing to think that absolutely everything in the universe not only orbits around another object, but really everything is orbiting around each other. The gravitational field that exists between earth and an object on the other side of the universe would be beyond tiny, but it exists, and due to there been zero friction in the Aether, this miniscule force does act on these bodies. Every object in the universe is connected by a force of energy.

[eulex]

Light is basically just a vibration, it's not made of anything particle-like ! When you talk about "sound" you don't say that the sound is air, you say that sound is a vibrational Wave ! Same with light, light is a VIBRATION of something, as with all energy, light is the movement of something !
But Einstein said light wasn't pure vibration/energy, he said that it was a particle, like water is a particle ! So, since he was saying that light is a particle, he started saying that light doesn't need a medium for movement ! Cuz LIGHT is it's OWN MEDIUM due to being a particle.
But, if light were a particle, it would destroy our atmosphere in a small amount of time.
I think you see the implications.
Then, you may ask, if Light is a vibrational wave(and not a particle), like sound, then what does it use to travel in space ? Sound can't travel in waves in space cuz there is no air for it to travel on, so what does light use to travel as a wave ? Well, it's called ether .
Also, in present times the ether is also called "quantum field"

[mattgassenheimer]

The Aether is the Reality Stone


Duh

[malectric]

From a non-physicist's naive view but that of someone who has practiced electronics for decades I've come to think that perhaps e.m. propagation through the "medium of space" shall we say, is expressed as transverse waves with electric and magnetic fields propagating at "right angles" in lockstep and gravitational waves are longitudinal. I sitll wonder.

[wesbaumguardner]

The Michelson Morley experiment failed to detect an ether wind. The experiment was not designed to detect the ether. There is no known way to detect the ether itself. All electromagnetic phenomena, including light, are ether perturbations. We observe with ether perturbations and therefore cannot detect the ether. Can we use sound to detect air? Can we use sonar to detect water? No to both. The Michelson Morley experiment had a faulty premise.

[RichardAlsenz]

My opinion, is the aether is the electric field. It is space which does not exist. Has anyone ever observed a point, line or circle? If your answer is yes, ask yourself was it a picture of a point I observed. One of Einstein's last published works admitted that space has no existence.

[curtiselmore]

If there's no "aether", then what is gravity distorting

[Kyle_Mortonx]

In one of my dreams I was told I was connected to the Aether, still trying to interpret it. It was a very powerful dream

[giles]

Would make a lot more sense if you explained it before everything else

[aloywong]

Came here from genshin impact and this is Aether huh, damn he powerful then any archon.

[broderen]

This experiment does not fail to prove the aeter ! It proves that the earth is not moving. The assumption of the earth moving dictated the reading of the result

[rod]

You have hit it correctly!!! There is a intense effort to keep the basics of the ether wave theory out of the concept of the human mind. When it becomes realized how simple ether physics is ... Is when the truth of our material and energetic existence will be made manifest. All limits will be broken upon this acceptance forever. The universe will be unlocked.

[eugeniusbear]

I have been searching for this for about 6 years now. Michaelson-Morley has underlying assumptions which are never articulated that perfectly explain why one would expect to achieve the null result. Assumption #1 - the Aether is a field that extends UNIFORMLY in all directions. Assumption #2 - the Aether does not rotate locally about the experimental apparatus.