Do you think an ether exists? Why or why not?

Question

I have this belief that there is no such thing such as "empty space" and that we exists in a superfluid that permeates all matter and space. Any thoughts? I think the Michelson-Morley does not necessarily rule out the possibility.

Answer 1

It depends, of course, on your definition of "ether". If you are talking about something needed to propagate light waves, M&M, as well as subsequent science (e.g., special relativity) clearly shows that there is no such thing. On the other hand, empty space apparently spawns pairs of virtual particles of fleeting existence, which are of theoretical interest because if there is a black hole nearby then it is possible that one but not both of a pair may fall into it. To support your notion of a superfluid, you would have to propose something that it does and cook up an experiment to show whether or not it actually does it.

Answer 2

Pretty much everyone believes that there is no such thing as empty space. What you call a 'superfluid' is actually energy. Particle physicists believe that the vacuum is full of virtual particles and 'real' particles that continuously appear and disappear. They also believe that the energy density of space is basically infinite (they do have an arbitrary cutoff point though).

On the other side of things, the astronomers/general relativity guys have all this 'dark matter' and 'dark energy', with the dark energy seemingly pervading all of space, causing the universe to expand. The reason people don't use the word 'ether' is because it originally implied that their was matter at all points in space.

But hey, energy is matter in a sense, so yes everyone does believe that there is an ether, they just don't use that word.

Answer 3

The concept of ether was introduced back when people used to have the concept of relative space (distance) but absolute time to any observer of an event i.e. before the theory of relativity. Now, it had an important consequence that different observers measure different speed of light (since speed = distance/time and one of them is an absolute measure and the other is relative, speed will be relative to each observer). So, people believed that speed of light (which is a universal constant: ratio of permitivity to permeability or vice versa, i can't remember which one) must be the same relative to the "ether" (your superfluid not in motion, a rest frame of reference, if you will). Thus, you will measure the speed of light to be higher if you are moving relative to the ether against the direction of the light than if you are not moving. But, the Michelson-Morley experiment measured the speed of light to be the same in the direction of the earth's motion through the ether (moving towards the source of light) to the one in the direction at right angles to the earth's motion (not moving towards the source).

Now after theory of relativity, things changed and now we have a concept that both time and space are relative. This was forced by the fundamental postulate that all observers must agree on the speed of light, no matter what their position and speed were. Since, space was relative, time was made relative (as we recognize it as a fourth dimension) and so the speed (=distance/time) of light was made to be constant for all observers. Thus, the whole idea of ether is unnecessary to explain any physical phenomenton as we have the revolutionary concept of relative time in addition to relative space.

Answer 4

The Aether exists. It has never been disproven. Never.
In fact, there is plenty of evidence to suggest it exists.

And its too complicated? Just look at the "standard model".
If that isn't unnecessary complexity, I don't know what is!!

There are plenty of physicists who do research on aether models.

Currently, physics cannot explain gravity. Its funny that people don't question this. Sheep.

Answer 5

A must read:
"Physics is Constipated, Intellectually that is"
by Milton Monson Sr.

I won't rehash his ideas here, but i do plan on working with them in the future.

It's pretty much knee-jerk to reject the "ether" concept nowadays. Which means its fertile ground for research. As are most things that are ignored in life.

Answer 6

The reason that nobody believes in the aether anymore is because it is unnecessarily complicated. The aether isn't needed to explain any observed phenomena so there is currently no reason to believe in it.

Answer 7

Out dated theory... quantum physics and string theory have largely replaced the need for that theory. Look at Nova http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/programs/3013_elegant.html
video and other links for excellent discussion of string theory