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Einstein's Greatest Mistake: Abandonment of the Aether |  | Author: Sid Deutsch
Publisher: iUniverse, Inc.
List Price: $15.95
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Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 303521
Media: Paperback
Edition: 0
Pages: 175
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.6
ISBN: 0595374816
Dewey Decimal Number: 530
EAN: 9780595374816
ASIN: 0595374816
Publication Date: February 9, 2006
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Product Description
If a child wants proof, we can think of 10 different ways to show that we are surrounded by air, but we are, of course, normally unaware that we live at the bottom of an ocean of air. It is claimed, in this book, that we are unaware, similarly, that we are surrounded by an atmosphere of aether. There is one major difference, however: We have not been able to detect the aether. Nevertheless, the aether provides a solution to the following mystery: How can light, or any electromagnetic wave, travel for billions of years across the vastness of the Universe, without losing any energy? The answer is that the Universe is filled with a light-transmitting medium, The Aether. The proof that there is an aether is the subject of the present book.
An intriguing
exploration of a fringe scientific theory. Luminiferous aetheror "light-bearing aether," a theory first postulated by Isaac Newton in the 18th century, later refined by James Clerk Maxwell in the 19th century and ultimately replaced by Albert Einstein's special theory of relativityis most simply defined as the medium for the propagation of light. According to Deutsch, Einstein possessed the computational justification for the presumed existence of the aether, but decided to discard the principle since it was too cumbersome to work through to its logical conclusion. The author cites many landmark experiments, as well as countless algebraic equations and diagrams
May interest those well versed in high-level physics. -Kirkus Discoveries
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| Customer Reviews:
 Ethereal Rubbish ... December 30, 2008
Arnold Cusmariu
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
It's rather late in the day to be arguing about an issue that was settled long ago by the famous experiment of Michaelson and Morley, which did not find any "ether."
I'll make my case from a methodological point of view. Pick any predicate you like that you might think expresses a property of something in the physical universe, or a relation between physical things or events. Call this predicate "P." How does science go about introducing an interpretation (meaning) of "P" into the metalanguage (or model theory) so that sentences of the form "something has P" have the truth value true? This is not a trivial matter at all.
The long and the short of it is that some sort of link to an experiment, instrumentally measurable or observable result, or derivation from empirical predicates with an established interpretation (already "in" the model) is necessary. In other words, before physicists can wonder if there is such a thing as the ether, the term "ether" must be in the model theory of physics. It never was. No one linked the term "ether" to any experiment, instrumentally measurable or observable result, or derived it from empirical predicates with an established interpretation. (Look as hard as you like and you won't find the term "ghost" in Pauling's chemistry book either.)
"Ether" got bandied about for a couple of centuries or so by physicists, when a simple methodological check would have been enough to convince them they were spinning their wheels, trying to make a withdrawal from a bank account that had not even been opened. In this sense, the Michaelson-Morley experiment was a waste of time. Sure, it was very dramatic and hit like a ton of bricks -- though let's keep in mind that even someone as brilliant as Poincare didn't let go.
Crank September 6, 2008
Joseph Horton (Hoover, AL USA)
0 out of 8 found this review helpful
Let's see...first let's assume what we are trying to prove, then the proof follows pretty simply from it. At the very beginning, the author tells us that there ~must~ be an aether or photons couldn't possibly travel over great distances without losing energy. He must have missed the lecture on the demonstration of the particle nature of light when he took physics--which I assume he did, but in a Heisenbergian way, cannot know for sure. He similarly seems unfamiliar with the notion that something in motion continues that way until acted upon by an outside force.
Photons keep going forever until and unless they experience such an interaction. Aether? Michelson and Morley knocked themselves out to find it when they had a strong observer bias to do so--and even ~they~ failed.
And he's a prof? That's embarrassing.
Looney tune.
 The Aether by any other name still conveys EM. July 16, 2008
The GPI
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
This interesting text brings the topic of light speeding toward us from the ultra deep field of space down to our earth. The primary thrust is that the mainstream concepts of the "Fabric of Space," "Virtual Particles," "Higgs Field" or "Dark Matter" are in fact describing "something" that really exists rather than "nothingness." Einstein had rested his hat on the alleged "nothingness" when time called his life's work completed.
Giving credit to the original terminology from 100+ years ago, this book calls this "something" the ether or Aether; though equating this with contemporary "Dark Matter" is clearly a premise in this book.
The original relevant feature of the Aether that it is a medium to convey EM has not changed since its inception. What has been refined is the theory that the Aether can exist both locally and universally and is "attached to ponderable bodies," and thus locally less dependant or even independent of any absolute reference frame.
Not at all condemning Albert Einstein, and written to dutifully coexist with and even supplement the theories within mainstream physics, the author summarizes the history of science related to the Aether and then proceeds to demonstrate why the Aether really might exist. The characteristics of Aether particles are calculated in a straight forward manner with clear reference to outstanding issues of popular contemporary cosmology, i.e. the aether could be the missing matter in the Universe. This book goes on to teach how the Aether actually helps to explain various observational realities that the non-aether theories have a great deal of difficulty with.
One of my favorites here is the progression of topics that lead up to a brilliant explanation of the results of the famous Tonomura et al dual slit single electron experiment. Taking the reader beyond the usual and elusive statement that electrons have a dual personality of both a particle and a wave, the author actually explains how the Aether interacts with photons and electrons to provide for what appears to be a "duality."
Also excellent is the book's summary presentation of an actual experimental apparatus and the results of a test for Faster than Light communication. The experiment is related to a group of similar experiments others have developed that are known as FTL, Slash, Superluminal, Flash or entanglement. Dr Deutsch describes how the interaction of the Aether with photons and other factors could be a better fit to the experimental results. Given the realm of the alternative, Dr. Deutsch's explanation is quite plausible.
Anyone wanting to know where a significant part of the future of physics and cosmological research could come from would benefit from reading this book and its references.
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