Lorentz's Ether Unveiled: The Legacy And Controversies Of Einstein's Rival

In this video, we delve into the fascinating world of the ether and the groundbreaking work of Hendrik Lorentz. Explore the historical context of Lorentz's ether theory, its clash with quantum mechanics, and the enduring debate surrounding its validity. Discover how Lorentz attempted to reconcile classical electrodynamics with the concept of the ether, and the profound implications it had on our understanding of space and time. Join us on this intellectual journey as we unravel the complex interplay between Lorentz's ideas, special relativity, and the ever-evolving landscape of physics. Don't miss out on this captivating exploration of Lorentz and the enigmatic aether!

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00:00 Introduction
01:35 Hendrick Lorentz Early Years
03:51 Ether Concepts
07:36 The Beginning of his Ether Theory
13:33 Wilhelm Wien & Electromagnetic Framework
16:37 Lorentz's Model of the Electron
19:16 Problems with the Model & Poincare's solution
21:33 Poincare's 4-Dimensional representation
25:47 Dealing with the lack of presence of the Ether
26:48 Constructive vs Principle Theories
29:15 The Quantum Revolution vs Lorentz's Electron Model
35:01 Lorentz's Legacy

[shodan]

This essay must have taken so much research, made even more difficult by the fact that much of these historical intricacies are increasingly being lost to the ravages of time.

Your dedication is profound, and I strongly recommend that you create a compilation of this essay as well as others with a significant historical reference that are surely worthy of publication.

I'm not aware of another living soul engaged in this type of analysis, and it deserves to be added to the permanent public record.

[nickr]

I think Lorentz was on a more realistic path. Einstein's abstractions are focused on the acceptance of "virtual" reference frames that are supposed to be valid... but it lacks any physical explanation. I think by the time that General Relativity came around, we should've acknowledged Lorentz was probably closer to the truth. We now talk about mass warping "space/time", but the universe is a real physical place. How does empty space, which is supposed to be treated as a void, have the ability to retain any characteristics? Furthermore, how can it "expand"?

It seems like there has to be *something* occupying the space between us that governs how matter acts. Honestly, it seems like we just changed the word "ether" to "space time"...

[jamesclerkmaxwell]

Ditching the Aether might well have been the worst self inflicted wounds in the history of Physics.
Nowadays, physicists keep invoking the need for an aether, but they will use other names for it "spacetime foam", "quantum fluctuations", etc.

[tf]

Lorentz was on the right track, the only thing his theory needed was to also consider matter (in addition to light) as an excitation/wave of the fundamental substratum ("ether"). If one does this move, length contraction and time dilation emerge automatically, two-way speed of light results naturally invariant (in accordance with all the experiments) while the synchronization convention for distant clocks can be chosen so to maintain an absolute simultaneity.

One can even add a variable tensorial index of refraction of the ether and local "optical flow" field, functions of the matter-energy distribution and obtain a Lorentz-ether constructive/materialistic version of general relativity.

In brief, Lorentz made the first step toward the unification of matter, light, gravity, and the fundamental substance which give rise to all of it.

[bxdanny]

It seems quite ironic that Lorentz's explanations for what we now call relativistic effects (or time dilation, length contraction, etc.) were discarded in favor of Einstein's because Lorentz's ideas were not compatible with quantum theory. Yet Einstein's ideas about relativity were then expanded into General Relativity, which isn't compatible with quantum theory either.

[markcoleman]

There was a deep-dive YouTube several years ago that included texts of their original papers and the follow-up experiment by Dayton Miller. The argument was made that the "null result" of Michaelson-Morley, as characterized by opponents to aether theory, was NOT a "no results obtained" but rather the experimental value obtained was only about half of the value they had predicted. The prediction failed, not the experiment - some effect WAS observed.

[Stopinvadingmyhardware]

The truth? We use Lorentz’s formulas for literally everything. Even in modern General Relativity.

[hpeterh]

They where not rivals, but friends. Lorentz even recommended Einstein as his successor at the University of Leyden.
They discussed their theories in a friendly way and helped each other.

[maurpine]

I appreciate the work involved in bringing all these complex concepts together in a cohesive manner. I took a semester in relativity a long time ago and always remember how the teacher derived the Lorentz time transform.

[BackassWordsWeirdworld]

So important to revisit this until we get it right. These guys got us this far, we owe to them and ourselves to finish what they started, for reasons of importance beyond comprehension until we do. Thanks for sharing this excellent historical summary of where we stand at this point in time. God bless.

[Traderjoe]

It had to be difficult for him to accept GR, but once he saw and understood the elegance of it, he accepted it despite it nullifying his life work. A true scientist.

[nobigbang]

The most comprehensive and rare take on the subject. Thanks.

[theseal]

This is so important that we discuss both rivaling theories and the experiments and how things led to another. Many gems might be discovered in both theories and all experiment to provide a new discovery

[MagereHein]

Thank you for this video. Lorentz sits on the top of the mountain of Dutch science, next to Huygens, Van Leeuwenhoek, Van 't Hoff and De Vries. After his retirement his contributions to numerical analysis of tidal flows were crucial for the planning and executions of the Dutch Zuiderzee Works. A set of locks in the Afsluitdijk are named after Lorentz.

[michaelzumpano]

You did a brilliant job with this! I almost didn’t watch it because of it’s length, then I almost shut it off at about 8 minutes because it seemed like the narrative was written by a language model (it was clear that the photos were composed by Stable Diffusion or something similar). But boy did you turn it around at about 10 minutes in. This was the most comprehensive treatment of the topic I’ve ever heard, from the standpoint of the people involved (if not the math). If you notice a lot of viewers watching for less than about 10 minutes, this may be the reason. But once you get into the meat of it, it’s so well done! I’m going to check out some of your other videos.

[lanimulrepus]

Outstanding video... The finest description of that period of physics that I've ever heard, read, or seen...

[michaelclarage]

These history-of-physics segments are so very useful. 99.9% of lay folk, and MOST scientists are ignorant of the very history of Science.

[jstclaire]

Fantastic job! The Vedas describe the distinction between grosser and finer structures in the universe and state that the Ether is the finest of all substances and refer to it as the Akasha, The force that acts within the Ether is called Prana.

[dariuslegacy]

It's not common to find a channel that focuses on alternative approaches to physics in such a balanced manner. Instead of taking the contrarian position of "all physicists are wrong" or "alternate ideas are cooky" you seem to unbiasedly present thought provoking ideas by scientists who can't simply be ignored... Subbed

[newstein]

This video has helped me to better understand the difference between Lorentz version of relativity and Einstein's special relativity and why Lorentz own was abandoned but Einstein's own was accepted. The ether concept stands true, but the mistake Lorentz made is believing it is electromagnetic when it is really magnetodielectric( faster than light) medium.