Aether Space 1925

Aether Space. Mysticism of the world Aether. Prof. A. Frankel. Aether space, Aether physics, luminiferous Aether, aether’s, Ether Aether

Aether space

Mysticism, i.e. belief in the supernatural, is the least relevant, it would seem, in the natural Sciences. In reality, however, not only biology but also physics are not entirely free from mystical elements.

In the field of physical Sciences, the focus or focus of mysticism is, in our opinion, the concept of the world Aether. This concept is still considered by many scientists as the basis of the physical structure of the world. In this sense, the role of the Aether is quite comparable to the role of the deity in the religious understanding of the universe. It is no exaggeration to say that the Aether is to physicists and natural philosophers of the old school what the deity is to believers. A comparison of the evolution of these concepts reveals a striking similarity between them-a similarity that sometimes reaches the point of identity.

In both cases this evolution culminates in the complete negation, the complete abolition, of the Aether on the one hand and of the deity on the other. However, such a finale is unacceptable for those who have been brought up in the relevant traditions, and they-contrary to reason, contrary to the facts-start up some in search of God, others in search of the Аether. Aether space

I. the Aether of Huygens and Fresnel.

Primitive man, unfamiliar with the laws of nature, was completely alien to the opposition of the natural and the supernatural, that is, allowed and not allowed by these laws. All the phenomena of nature were conceived by him as the activities of living beings, directly visible-in the form of men and animals, or able to hide from human sight; the latter were called by him gods.

However, the invisibility of the gods was not due to their incorporeality; at will, gods could open to people in the form of people (or animals) differing from other similar beings only bigger force or dexterity and in General big development of these or those properties.

If we turn from this primitive animistic cosmogony to the primitive physical cosmogony, which began to take shape, as a science, only after the awakening of mankind from medieval hibernation, we will see a very similar picture.

No matter how majestic Newton’s natural philosophy is, no matter how wide it is in its scope, it was still extremely limited in content, which was mainly reduced to the movement and interaction of celestial bodies. the Nature of these bodies, the nature of matter itself and the processes occurring in it remained almost unknown.

Therefore, in extending the principles of Newtonian mechanics to all physical phenomena, the pioneers of physical science, including Newton himself, did not hesitate to attach to ordinary visible weighty matter a number of invisible or weightless substances with very special properties. These include, for example, the “light” particles of Newton, the heat-bearing particles that form a special weightless substance-phlogiston, the electric and magnetic fluids of Coulomb, etc.

All these special substances belonged to the ordinary about the same as the primitive gods to ordinary people. But just as in the course of the development of the animistic worldview all these gods were forced to give way to a single God, who absorbed or subjugated them all — just as in the course of the development of the physical concept of the world, the various “divine substances” were partly displaced, partly absorbed by one of them, namely, the light Aether of Huygens.

Based on numerous analogies between light and sound phenomena, the Dutch physicist huyghons proposed a new theory of light at the beginning of the eighteenth century (which is still stated in most textbooks as the last word of modern science).

In contrast to Newton, who assumed that light depends on particles of special “light” matter, “flowing” in all directions from luminous bodies, Huygens suggested that light is a special form of vibrational motion of material particles, transmitted from one body to another through a special elastic medium, filling space, which seems to us absolutely empty and which connects with each other as the most distant celestial bodies, and neighboring particles of these bodies.

The new divine substance, discovered (or rather invented) by Huygens, differed from ordinary elastic bodies only in its invisibility and weightlessness, as well as in its finer structure, which allowed the particles of Aether to penetrate into the spaces between the particles of “weighty” matter.

Huygens ‘ theory made it possible to explain very simply the phenomena of reflection and refraction of light, but left completely open the question of the nature of light vibrations and the properties of Aether as an elastic medium, outside and inside weighty bodies. this question tried to explain in the first quarter of the XIX century, the famous French scientist Fresnel.

First of all, Fresnel was able to prove that light vibrations, in contrast to sound, are not longitudinal, but transverse in nature, that is, fall to elastic shifts, the direction of which is perpendicular to the light rays. Such elastic shifts can obviously occur only in solid (in the sense of incompressibility) bodies, and therefore the Aether had to be considered not as a gas similar to air, but as a solid (of infinite dimensions).

The fact that the light vibrations were of a purely transverse character indicated that the Aether was not capable of experiencing changes in volume, that is, in volume. that is, in contrast to ordinary solids, it is absolutely incompressible.

As for the degree of its hardness, it was possible to judge about it by the speed of propagation of light: taking into account that the latter is equal to 300,000 kilometers per second, that is, about a hundred thousand times more than the speed of propagation of substances in ordinary solids, it was possible to conclude that the Aether has either a colossal hardness, or an unusually low density. Fresnel’s formulae corresponded exactly to the experimental facts.

Thus the real existence of the light Aether—a weightless, solid, and incompressible medium between ordinary material bodies and particles—seemed to be beyond doubt. Aether space

II. Faraday and Maxwell Aether.

However, the development of the idea of Aether did not stop at this “light” stage. From the lesser God, the luminous mercury of the physical Olympus, he was destined to become the great and one God, not only filling, but constituting the material universe.

This obstruction occurred during the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century, thanks mainly to the work of the brilliant English physicists Faraday (Faraday), who expressed the basic ideas that initiated the further glorification of the Aether, and Maxwell (Maxwell), who embodied these ideas in an accurate quantitative theory.

Faraday’s ideas grew out of the experimental study of electromagnetic phenomena. Observing the interaction of electrified and magnetized bodies, Faraday came to the conclusion that. the power that each of these bodies exerts on the other, is not transmitted directly through the void separating them, but that the intermediary this transfer is the same light air, so if a good explanation of light phenomena.

The idea of Faraday on the transmission of electromagnetic action through the light air proved to be extremely fruitful. Its true significance, however, lies not in a logical construction, but in the physical convergence of electromagnetic phenomena on the one hand and light phenomena on the other.

Hence followed, first of all, the homogeneity of these phenomena, hitherto considered quite different. Transmitted through the same medium as light vibrations, electromagnetic waves must propagate through space at the speed of light; as for the light vibrations, they obviously must have an electromagnetic nature, i.e. be caused by electromagnetic vibrations.

Faraday’s premonitions were brilliantly realized. Refining his basic ideas and putting them in mathematical form, Maxwell in the sixties of the last century came to his famous electromagnetic theory of light, which opened, we can say, a new era in physics.

Maxwell’s ideas were by no means exact deductions from Faraday’s ideas.

The expansion of the role of Aether in the physical conception of the universe was in fact its victory over the other divine substances of physics and above all over the mysterious electric “fluids” of Coulomb.

If the electric forces are elastic stresses in the Aether surrounding electrified objects, the essence of electrification must be reduced to the displacement of the aether in one direction or another from these bodies, for example. outside, in case of positive electrification, and inside— in case of negative (or Vice versa). Thus, from the point of view of Maxwell, electricity completely lost its former substantial character; electric charges turned into centers of positive or negative displacement of Aether, diverging from them or converging to them in the direction of electric, lines of force.

As for magnetic substances, they turned into a mathematical fiction at the beginning of the XIX century (i.e. before Faraday and Maxwell). The magnetic effects of electric currents, studied by the French physicist A l t e R o m, made it possible to consider magnetism as a consequence of the rotational movement of electric charges in individual particles of iron and other magnetic substances, and magnetic forces as additional “electrokinetic forces” between moving charges (absent in the case of their rest).

With the dematerialization of electric charges and the transfer of the center of gravity of electric phenomena to the Aether, the latter also became the focus of magnetic phenomena, which were reduced by Maxwell to a special kind of vortex movements in the Aether. Aether space

Since all the electrical and magnetic properties of ordinary (“weighty”) material bodies were determined by the properties of the Aether filling them, all these bodies could be considered as Aether, changed in a certain way with respect to its density or elastic properties. At the same time, in accordance with the atomistic theory, it was necessary to treat individual atoms as centers of special vortex perturbations in the Aether (Lord Kelvin’s “vortex atoms”).

In one way or another, having turned from the transmitter of light phenomena into the center of electromagnetic phenomena, having absorbed electrical and magnetic substances, and after them ordinary matter, the Aether thus became the only material basis of the universe.

“Infinite space and the passage of time eternal,” the Aether of the universe received all the attributes of the one God ,who “fills everything with himself, embraces, builds, composes” and whom, by the way, ” no one could comprehend.” For, as we shall presently see, the new properties of the Aether, arising from its electromagnetic functions, were quite beyond the power of consistent mechanical interpretation.

Having established the cult of the world Aether as the material Almighty, physics became the doctrine of Aether “), a kind of theology, which turned all its efforts to the harmonization and mutual reconciliation of the various properties of this special deity. Aether space

  • ) So, for example., the famous course of physics of the outstanding German scientist Drude, published at the end of the last century, is called ” physics of Aether 14. (Die Physik des Aethers).

III. The Aether Of Lorentz

We do not need to consider the internal contradictions that lurk in the concept of the one, omnipotent, omnipresent, and so on. God, which is the institution of the development of religious worldview. One of the features common to all monotheistic teachings is the incongruity of the divine will and the natural law revealed by the study of natural phenomena. In attempting to eliminate this fundamental contradiction without prejudice to the” Supreme being, “the religiously minded minds of enlightened humanity were compelled to establish the” principle of non-interference, ” as the basis of divine policy, in earthly Affairs.

“The’ one God ‘of enlightened religious thinkers, who created everything with a single word, gave the material world a certain set of laws, allowing it to live completely independently on the basis of this Constitution and once for all renouncing any ‘interventions’. Thus, the role of God in the material world was reduced to the creation of the latter; after this creative act, God “retired to rest”, turning from a sculptor to a spectator — and moreover completely impassive.

It is obvious that this passive God of enlightened theists has nothing in common-except the name – with the living and human-like God of Judaism, Christianity and all other passive monotheistic teachings.

Having lost his living connection with humanity, having renounced all influence on its future destinies, as well as on the destinies of the material world in General, this “neutral” God has now become completely invulnerable to critical criticism — but at the same time useless to anyone — except “enlightened mystics”, for whom the most obscure, and completely meaningless theism is still more acceptable than the complete denial of God – atheism. Aether space

The mechanical properties of Aether, which were necessary to substantiate the electromagnetic theory of maxuel, were not only completely incomprehensible, but also were in irreconcilable contradiction with each other. One of these contradictions is the impossibility of the vortex motions necessary to explain magnetism in a solid, which must be Aether (in the form of a variety of light vibrations): such vortex motions are possible only in liquids.

Without dwelling on other less obvious but no less striking contradictions, we note that numerous attempts to resolve them, despite the efforts of Maxwell himself and other physicists, have failed completely. The Aether was thus incapable of fulfilling the worldly role to which it had been called by Faraday and Maxwell. Having turned into a tangle of incompatible properties, he, like the one God of religious teachings, was under the threat of complete abolition.

To free the Aether from internal contradictions, the founder of modern electrical theory, the Dutch physicist Lorenz (II. A. Lorentz) was forced to transform this concept in a spirit quite analogous to the aforementioned theistic theories. To do this, he had, first of all, to restore the materiality of electricity in accordance with new facts, the discovery of which dates back to the end of the last century.

It turned out that neutral atoms contain smaller particles that have certain, constant electric charges. Under certain conditions, these particles can separate from the atoms and thus be directly examined. A detailed study showed that negatively electrified particles are exactly the same, from whatever atoms they originate, and that they are 2000 times lighter than hydrogen atoms. These particles, which can be considered as atoms of negative electricity, were called electrons. Along with them in atoms there are more massive and strongly connected particles with positive charges and the mass equal to mass of hydrogen atoms — so-called positive electrons or protons.

A neutral hydrogen atom is nothing but a combination of one proton and one electron. All other atoms are similarly composed of the same protons and electrons, but are more or less firmly connected with each other. This is the essence of modern ideas about the structure of matter.

At the beginning of the nineties of the last century, i.e. at the time of the emergence of the Lorentz theory, they were still in their infancy. All the more significant is the first step, expressed in the recognition of the material nature and atomic structure of electricity — or rather, the primacy and immutability of the electric charge, as properties of elementary particles of matter — electrons.

Without trying to consider electrons as centers of elastic deformations of the Aether, Lorenz assumed that the Aether exists by itself as a dynamic intermediary between them, completely, however, not participating in their movement, i.e. remaining absolutely motionless. No deformations or vortices in the Aether, which would correspond to electric or magnetic lines of force, the Lorentz theory does not assume. Mobility is the main property of matter. By imagining the Aether as absolutely immobile, Lorentz’s theory apparently took away from it all properties (except immobility) , including materiality (which returned to electricity in the form of electrons).

The immaterial and immobile Aether of Lorentz, which physicists have grasped in the hope of saving the “Supreme deity” from final destruction, has apparently nothing in common with the material and elastic Aether of Huygens and Fresnel, Faraday and Maxwell, except perhaps the name. But-such is the power of words over concepts — the word “Aether” was retained — and everything seemed to be, if not quite as it had been, then at any rate quite happily.

And, like the enlightened theists of our time, who have rejected the living God of their ancestors and are immersed in the mystical contemplation of a new “neutral” God, to whom they have no concern and to whom, in fact, they also have no concern — modern physicists have replaced the concrete and material Aether mythical nebula, nothing essentially different from the motionless empty space

Aether space, Aether physics, luminiferous Aether, aether’s, Ether Aether

IV. Einstein and atheism in physics.

The fall of the Aether, just as the fall of the deity, could not, of course, stop at this stage. In the thinking part of human society, theism has long been replaced by atheism-a complete denial of God. Similarly, the evolution of the concept of Aether ends. The last blow to this concept was dealt by Einstein’s theory of relativity, which took away from the Lo-Renz Aether its essential property-immobility. From this immobility arose the possibility of actually measuring the” absolute velocity ” of various bodies, i.e. their velocity with respect to the Aether.

So for example., it is quite clear that the propagation of light can occur at the same speed in all directions only if the light source and the material body on which its propagation is studied are stationary with respect to the aether. Thus, measuring the speed of light in different directions along the earth’s surface, it would be possible to set the “true” motion of the earth (coinciding with the direction in which the light waves, catching up with earth Phar, subject to the lowest rate).

This kind of experiments, put with extraordinary care by the American physicist Michelson, gave a negative result: not only the “absolute” motion of the earth, not even its movement around the sun in the slightest degree is not reflected in the propagation of light vibrations emanating from terrestrial sources {in relation to the earth’s surface).

On the contrary, in the case of light emitted by an external source, the motion of the earth is easily detected in the periodic displacement of the apparent position of the stars in the firmament (the so-called aberration of light).

Thus, the course of physical phenomena depends not on the “absolute”, but on the relative motion, i.e. the motion of material bodies in relation to the system with which the observer is connected. Under such conditions, the motionless Lorentz Aether completely loses all physical meaning and at the same time any right to further existence. From “everything” as it appeared in the heyday of Maxwell’s theory, it has catastrophically — and at the same time almost imperceptibly, thanks to the immutability of its name-become “nothing”, a synonym for empty space.

The crisis of the Aether at the end of the nineteenth century seemed to be the crisis of the whole mechanical worldview, which seemed to be based on it as a Foundation. In reality, however, the Aether was not the Foundation of the majestic building of the modern electro-mechanical worldview, but the scaffolding that was necessary in its construction, and which are removed away after construction. A similar role in the development of first physical, and then ethical and social concepts of humanity played and continues to play the concept of deity. After completing its historical mission, it is exactly the same as the notion of the Aether must leave the scene.

But old habits of thought have an extraordinary power over human minds; these habits are often stronger than logic and even facts, preventing not only the correct interpretation, but also the simple understanding of the latter.

The collapse of the Aether has put many—if not most-physicists in the position of believers who are persuaded to become atheists and rebuild their worldview on a positive basis, but who, like the believers of our day, are struggling in the last attempts to preserve and logically justify the favorite misconceptions of the usual worldview.

Begins real mystical cult global Aether, a kind of Aether – search, similar, as two breath water, with not less widespread in the top of the recent—as Russian, so and Western-European society-bogoiskatelstvom and bogostroitelstvom.

Some physicists, turning a blind eye to obvious facts, try to return to the usual ideas about the Aether of the times of Faraday and Maxwell, to restore the real living God, as the Aether was in the good old days. To this group belongs, incidentally, the venerable English physicist 0. Lodge, who, incidentally, closely associates Aether with the materialization of spirits (being a convinced spiritualist).

Others with fanatical zeal are trying to build a new Aether, consisting not of material atoms, but of atoms of energy (“quanta”). Such, by the way, is the theory of the famous German physicist Len ar da, who, not limiting himself, so to speak, to the ordinary Aether, invents two Aethers penetrating each other — the primary and the secondary one originating from it. It is remarkable that the corresponding book Lenard “Aether und Uraether”, published for the first time in 1919, has already managed to withstand several editions (it is translated into Russian). Aether space

Thus, the myth of the origin of the ordinary Aether from the primordial Aether (very reminiscent of the ancient Greek myth of the birth of the gods Chronos) meets, obviously, if not sympathy, then, at least, interest in wide circles of German physicists. Aether space

It would be useless to enumerate other examples. The above is sufficient to prove that physicists have not yet completely freed themselves from the mystical fog in the field of their science, and that the inability of a large part of enlightened humanity to move to atheism, and a large part of modern physicists to abandon Aether — seeking, have the same root — in the traditions and inertia of the methods of human thinking. Aether space

Source: “BULLETIN of KNOWLEDGE” No. 6-1925, automatic translation

Aether space

Aether space, Aether physics, luminiferous Aether, aether’s, Ether Aether

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