Quote:
Originally Posted by wizwor
3. Luminiferous aether: Assumed to exist for much of the 19th century, the theory held that a “medium” of aether pervaded the universe through which light could propagate. The celebrated Michelson-Morley experiment in 1887 was the first to provide hard evidence that aether did not exist, and the theory lost all popularity among scientists by the
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The aether was never disproven. It was proven unnecessary for the theoretical physics of the time. A completely different issue.
To answer all the disagreements on this point, let me show the work.
Michaelson/Morley showed that the speed of light did not vary in any direction. No argument. This caused a major stir in late 19th century physics. Another physicist (FitzGerald) provided a mathematical basis for this anomaly. He proposed the space contracted/expanded at the same rate that the aether would cause a difference in the speed of light, so you could never see the difference in the speed of light caused by the aether, if it was there. Since you could never measure it (according to the FitzGerald Contraction), aether was eventually dropped as something that existed. (The FitzGerald contraction fit into the mathematics of Relativity perfectly, so once relativity was accepted, the aether went away.)
However, none of this has disproved the existence of aether. Arguments could be made that the existence of permeability and permittivity of a vacuum are aspects of aether. but be careful saying that, as "everybody knows" there is no aether...