With regard to Einstein and how he developed his 'special theory of
relativity' which is what prompted physics to discard the aether.
"What did he know and when did he know it? - Was the Michelson-Morley
experiment an independent verification of Einstein's special relativity
or was special relativity a theory built around the MM results? =
The MM result was well known in europe in 1905 when Einstein published
his special relativity paper. Einstein claimed he did not know about MM
when he wrote his paper but there is evidence he did. =
(btw: Einstein studied physics at Zurich Polytechnic College or
Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule, as they call it in Switzerland. =
It's still there. From Zurich main station take the number 6 tram. It's
the same tram that Einstein used to take and legend has it that it was
on this tram that he spaced out and imagined himself riding on a beam of
light and came up with the idea that the speed of electromagnetic waves
was independent of the observer.) =
Here is an interesting set of comments from and about Einstein on the
Michelson-Morley experiment;
http://munshi.sonoma.edu/JAMAL/physicsmath.html#1
"There is a very interesting article on this question published in the
August 1982 issue of Physics Today by Prof. Yoshimasa A. Ono. The
article begins: =
It is known that when Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Physics in 1922, he was unable to attend the ceremonies in Stockholm in
December of that year because of an earlier commitment to visit Japan at
the same time. =
In Japan, Einstein gave a speech entitled "How I Created the Theory of
Relativity" at Kyoto University on 14 December 1922. =
This was an impromptu speech to students and faculty members, made in
response to a request by K. Nishida, professor of philosophy at Kyoto
University. Einstein himself made no written notes. The talk was
delivered in German and a running translation was given to the audience
on the spot by J. Isiwara, who had studied under Arnold Sommerfeld and
Einstein from 1912 to 1914 and was a professor of physics at Tohoku
University. =
Isiwara kept careful notes of the lecture, and published his detailed
notes (in Japanese) in the monthly Japanese periodical Kaizo in 1923;
Ishiwara's notes are the only existing notes of Einstein's talk... =
Ono ends his introduction to his translation with the statement: =
It is clear that this account of Einstein's throws some light on the
current controversy as to whether or not he was aware of the
Michelson-Morley experiment when he proposed the special theory of
relativity in 1905; the account also offers insight into many other
aspects of Einstein's work on relativity. =
With regard to the ether, Einstein states: =
Light propagates through the sea of ether, in which the Earth is moving.
In other words, the ether is moving with respect to the Earth... =
With regard to the experiment he argues: =
Soon I came to the conclusion that our idea about the motion of the
Earth with respect to the ether is incorrect, if we admit Michelson's
null result as a fact. =
This was the first path which led me to the special theory of
relativity. Since then I have come to believe that the motion of the
Earth cannot be detected by any optical experiment, though the Earth is
revolving around the Sun. [48] =
The above information gives us insight into the nature of Einstein's
relativity theory. He believes that the sea of ether exists, but he also
believes that it cannot be detected by experiments, in other words, he
believes it is invisible. =
The situation in modern physics is very much like the Hans Christian
Andersen tale of "The Emperor's New Clothes", with Einstein playing the
part of the Emperor. The tale goes that the Emperor, who was obsessed
with fine clothing to the point that he cared about nothing else, let
two swindlers sell him a suit of cloth that would be invisible to anyone
who was "unfit for his office or unforgivably stupid." It turned out
that no one could see the suit not the emperor, not his courtiers, not
the citizens of the town who lined the street to see him show off his
new finery. Yet no one dared admit it until a little child cried out,
"But he doesn't have anything on!" =
In regard to Einstein's reluctance to acknowledge the influence of the
Michelson-Morley experiment on his thinking, and Whittaker's argument
that his special relativity theory was a clever restatement of the work
of Poincar=E9 and Lorentz, I report the following published [56]
statements which Einstein made to Prof. R. S. Shankland on this matter: =
The several statements which Einstein made to me in Princeton concerning
the Michelson-Morley experiment are not entirely consistent, as
mentioned above and in my earlier publication. His statements and
attitudes towards the Michelson-Morley experiment underwent a
progressive change during the course of our several conversations.
I wrote down within a few minutes after each meeting exactly what I
recalled that he had said. On 4 February 1950 he said,"...that he had
become aware of it through the writings of H. A. Lorentz, but only after
1905 had it come to his attention." =
But at a later meeting on 24 October, 1952 he said, "I am not sure when
I first heard of the Michelson experiment. I was not conscious that it
had influenced me directly during the seven years that relativity had
been my life. I guess I just took it for granted that it was true." =
However, in the years 1905-1909 (he told me) he thought a great deal
about Michelson's result in his discussions with Lorentz and others, and
then he realized (so he told me) that he "had been conscious of
Michelson's result before 1905 partly through his reading of the papers
of Lorentz and more because he had simply assumed this result of
Michelson to be true."... =
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
AHA! But the damage was done...science was slowed and is still
slowed...however, slowly, slowly people are waking up to the only
logical approach, that of an extant aether.
-- =
Jerry Wayne Decker / jdecker@keelynet.com
http://keelynet.com / "From an Art to a Science"
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