PSI Blog 20240311 Why the 1887 Michelson-Morley Experiment did not Disprove Aether
They only proved “ether” was not fixed.
Many thanks to Prof. Steve Ruis for this comment:
“I suspect that most people, as I did, believe that the
experiment disproved the existence of an aether. If you are looking for a topic
to write on, explaining why that isn't so and the follow-up experiments would
help people understand. Thanks for all you do!”
Through a series of notable missteps, this celebrated
experiment, also known as MMX, led to the Big Bang Theory. This clever, yet
naïve attempt to measure Earth’s motion around the Sun has been called the
“most famous null experiment of all time.”
MMX was clever because it attempted to detect the
velocity of light in two different directions:
1. In
the same direction of Earth’s travel.
2. Perpendicular
to Earth’s travel
It was naïve because Michelson and Morley based the
experiment on four erroneous assumptions:
1. Ether[3]
is fixed and Earth simply moves through it. They expected to observe an “ether
wind” similar to the wind in your face when you run down the street.
2. The
above was ironic since Lucretius, Galileo, Einstein, and many others assumed
all things in the universe were in motion with respect to other things: An
assumption otherwise known as “relativity.”
3. Not
being in motion, fixed ether particles could not accelerate ordinary matter.
Newton's Second Law of Motion (F=ma) would not apply to them.
4. The
ubiquitous ether permeated everything, with ordinary matter moving through it.
This assumption became especially clear in their selection of where to perform
the experiment: the basement of a campus dormitory.
In reality, this would be like trying to measure the jet
stream in your backyard at sea level. They did not imagine aether might
form an “aetherosphere” that surrounded the Earth and was attached to Earth
just like our atmosphere. Then there could be no differential motion between
Earth and the aether that was moving along with it.
Nonetheless, their apparatus was cleverly designed to
observe the fringe (fuzziness) when the two perpendicularly intersecting beams
of light met after traveling identical distances. The assumed light
“corpuscles” would have recorded an “ether wind” of 30 km/s—the velocity of
Earth around the Sun. Light traveling perpendicular to the direction of Earth’s
motion would be unaffected. There actually was a fringe, but it was tiny and
generally ignored by budding regressive physicists as experimental error. The final
interpretation: a null result. MMX proved there was no fixed ether.
But was there a more reasonable aether[4]
that was not fixed? Why should aether particles be unlike other portions of the
universe, being in motion with respect to other things? Why wouldn’t aether
particles interact with ordinary matter by colliding with it, undergoing
acceleration and deceleration per Newton's Second Law of Motion? The truth is
that real aether particles have all those properties and then some. Most of the
research on aether is in dissident literature where it is ignored by regressive
physicists, who are, after all, are defined by “aether denial,” which appears
necessary for graduation.
After MMX, subsequent measurements that used improved
technology showed they were a function of altitude (Figure 42 above). The MMX
measurements were at low attitude (about 210 m at Cleveland, Ohio). They only
made 36 crude measurements, but thousands have been performed and interpreted
by numerous investigators at various altitudes. None have been especially
simple because Earth rotates as it revolves around the Sun. The results change
minute-by-minute and the complete width of the fringes have not always been included
in the measurements, especially by MMX. In addition, the solar system’s
rotation around the center of the Milky Way at about 230 km/s may or may not be
a factor.
I think Figure 42 is evidence for an “aetherosphere,”
which, like our atmosphere, surrounds Earth and moves along with it. I also
have concluded it is a result of the accumulation of aether particles that were
decelerated after colliding with Earth during the acceleration we call
gravitation. Consequently, the density of the aether medium is greatest near
Earth, becoming less dense though more active and less sluggish with distance
from Earth. Thus, the full 30-km/s motion Michelson and Morley were trying to detect
only can be measured at a great distance from Earth—probably beyond the
troposphere.
The readoption of the aether medium results in data
interpretations that are more logical than the “anti-common sense” we were taught.
Among these are:
1. Abandonment
of the perfectly empty space idealization and the false assumption that nonexistence
is possible.
2. Abandonment
of Einstein’s false assumption light was a massless particle containing
perfectly empty space traveling perpetually through perfectly empty space.
3. Its
source does not contribute velocity to light because light is not a
particle.
4. Light
velocity is constant because light is a wave whose velocity is, like all waves,
controlled by the medium as long as the properties of the medium remain
unchanged.
5. The
so-called “gravitational redshift” is a result of slight changes in the medium as
a function of altitude. Distal increases in aether pressure cause light waves
to speed up, lengthening the distance between waves.
6. Both
clock speed and mass increase due to increases in aether pressure with
increases in altitude.
7. Einstein’s
“gravitational waves” are shock waves that travel through the aether medium at
the same velocity as light waves. They have nothing to do with gravitation.
8. The
acceleration of gravitation is produced by high-velocity local aether particles
that become decelerated upon colliding with ordinary matter.
9. The
“Dark Matter” contributing to the mass of rotational galaxies probably is
decelerated aether like the aetherosphere surrounding Earth.
PSI Blog 20240311
Thanks for reading
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[1] Galaev,
Y.M., 2002, The measuring of ether-drift velocity and kinematic ether viscosity
within optical waves band (English translation): Space-time & Substance, v.
3, no. 5, p. 207-224. [http://go.glennborchardt.com/Galaevaether].
[2] Borchardt, Glenn, 2017, Infinite Universe Theory:
Berkeley, California, Progressive Science Institute, 337 p. [http://go.glennborchardt.com/IUTebook].
[3] I use “ether” as the proper spelling for fixed ether
and for the class of organic chemicals. The “aether” spelling has precedent
with Descartes (1844) who suggested it was the ubiquitous medium responsible
for light transmission, gravitation, and the formation of ordinary matter.
[4] See above.
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