Applications of the Lorentz-FitzGerald Hypothesis to Dynamical and Gravitational Problems
Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original edition for your reading pleasure.It is also searchable and contains hyper-links to chapters.
***
An excerpt from the Introductory:
There is at the present time a general consensus of opinion, among those best qualified to judge, that the fundamental facts of optics and electro-dynamics require us to assume that the ether does not partake (to any sensible extent) in the motion of material bodies which pass through it. The aberration of light is perhaps the most conspicuous of those phenomena which it has hitherto been found impossible to account for on any other hypothesis without becoming involved in serious difficulties. All the phenomena in which there is relative motion of the source of light with respect to the observer, or of a material medium (through which light is propagated) with respect to source and observer, appear to require the above assumption, even those which at first seemed to lead to a conclusion somewhat different in form. Thus the experiment of Fizeau, in which he compared the velocities of light when going with, and against, a stream of water, was interpreted by Fresnel as indicating a certain entrainment of the ether. This interpretation was based on Fresnel's theory of refraction, which assumed that the etherial density was increased in material media; and it is only the excess ether which must be carried by the matter. On the electron theory, however (and indeed on any resonance theory of dispersion and refraction) there is no excess density of the ether in ponderable bodies; and it is not difficult to see that Fizeau's experiment requires a stationary ether. A result which leads to the same view has been obtained in electro-dynamics by H. A. Wilson in measuring the electric force produced by moving an insulator in a magnetic field. All such experiments upon the effects of relative motion, so far as I know, give positive results which may be predicted from the hypothesis of a fixed ether, and the magnitude of the effects observed is in general of the same order as the fraction v/V, where v is the relative velocity involved, and V the velocity of light.
The theory of a stagnant ether leads us, however, in a no less direct manner to expect certain modifications in the phenomena of light and electricity when therein no relative motion of material objects, but when all the apparatus concerned as well as the observer are carried through the ether with the velocity v. The effects to be expected are of the order of (v/V) squared; this is a very small fraction even when v is the velocity of the earth in its orbit, but the possible accuracy of certain optical experiments is so great that these effects could certainly be found if they existed without some compensating effect to mask them. As is well known, these effects have never been found; the first conclusively negative results were obtained in the celebrated experiments of Michelson and Morley, and several other optical investigations have also failed to show the expected results. On the electrical side the problem has been attacked by Trouton and Noble, who hung up an electrical condenser by a torsion wire and looked for a torque which, on the theory of a stagnant ether, ought to exist when the condenser is carried along by the earth. Although the sensitiveness of their experimental arrangement was ample for the observation of the expected second order effect, their result was also negative.
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***
An excerpt from the Introductory:
There is at the present time a general consensus of opinion, among those best qualified to judge, that the fundamental facts of optics and electro-dynamics require us to assume that the ether does not partake (to any sensible extent) in the motion of material bodies which pass through it. The aberration of light is perhaps the most conspicuous of those phenomena which it has hitherto been found impossible to account for on any other hypothesis without becoming involved in serious difficulties. All the phenomena in which there is relative motion of the source of light with respect to the observer, or of a material medium (through which light is propagated) with respect to source and observer, appear to require the above assumption, even those which at first seemed to lead to a conclusion somewhat different in form. Thus the experiment of Fizeau, in which he compared the velocities of light when going with, and against, a stream of water, was interpreted by Fresnel as indicating a certain entrainment of the ether. This interpretation was based on Fresnel's theory of refraction, which assumed that the etherial density was increased in material media; and it is only the excess ether which must be carried by the matter. On the electron theory, however (and indeed on any resonance theory of dispersion and refraction) there is no excess density of the ether in ponderable bodies; and it is not difficult to see that Fizeau's experiment requires a stationary ether. A result which leads to the same view has been obtained in electro-dynamics by H. A. Wilson in measuring the electric force produced by moving an insulator in a magnetic field. All such experiments upon the effects of relative motion, so far as I know, give positive results which may be predicted from the hypothesis of a fixed ether, and the magnitude of the effects observed is in general of the same order as the fraction v/V, where v is the relative velocity involved, and V the velocity of light.
The theory of a stagnant ether leads us, however, in a no less direct manner to expect certain modifications in the phenomena of light and electricity when therein no relative motion of material objects, but when all the apparatus concerned as well as the observer are carried through the ether with the velocity v. The effects to be expected are of the order of (v/V) squared; this is a very small fraction even when v is the velocity of the earth in its orbit, but the possible accuracy of certain optical experiments is so great that these effects could certainly be found if they existed without some compensating effect to mask them. As is well known, these effects have never been found; the first conclusively negative results were obtained in the celebrated experiments of Michelson and Morley, and several other optical investigations have also failed to show the expected results. On the electrical side the problem has been attacked by Trouton and Noble, who hung up an electrical condenser by a torsion wire and looked for a torque which, on the theory of a stagnant ether, ought to exist when the condenser is carried along by the earth. Although the sensitiveness of their experimental arrangement was ample for the observation of the expected second order effect, their result was also negative.
Applications of the Lorentz-FitzGerald Hypothesis to Dynamical and Gravitational Problems
Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original edition for your reading pleasure.It is also searchable and contains hyper-links to chapters.
***
An excerpt from the Introductory:
There is at the present time a general consensus of opinion, among those best qualified to judge, that the fundamental facts of optics and electro-dynamics require us to assume that the ether does not partake (to any sensible extent) in the motion of material bodies which pass through it. The aberration of light is perhaps the most conspicuous of those phenomena which it has hitherto been found impossible to account for on any other hypothesis without becoming involved in serious difficulties. All the phenomena in which there is relative motion of the source of light with respect to the observer, or of a material medium (through which light is propagated) with respect to source and observer, appear to require the above assumption, even those which at first seemed to lead to a conclusion somewhat different in form. Thus the experiment of Fizeau, in which he compared the velocities of light when going with, and against, a stream of water, was interpreted by Fresnel as indicating a certain entrainment of the ether. This interpretation was based on Fresnel's theory of refraction, which assumed that the etherial density was increased in material media; and it is only the excess ether which must be carried by the matter. On the electron theory, however (and indeed on any resonance theory of dispersion and refraction) there is no excess density of the ether in ponderable bodies; and it is not difficult to see that Fizeau's experiment requires a stationary ether. A result which leads to the same view has been obtained in electro-dynamics by H. A. Wilson in measuring the electric force produced by moving an insulator in a magnetic field. All such experiments upon the effects of relative motion, so far as I know, give positive results which may be predicted from the hypothesis of a fixed ether, and the magnitude of the effects observed is in general of the same order as the fraction v/V, where v is the relative velocity involved, and V the velocity of light.
The theory of a stagnant ether leads us, however, in a no less direct manner to expect certain modifications in the phenomena of light and electricity when therein no relative motion of material objects, but when all the apparatus concerned as well as the observer are carried through the ether with the velocity v. The effects to be expected are of the order of (v/V) squared; this is a very small fraction even when v is the velocity of the earth in its orbit, but the possible accuracy of certain optical experiments is so great that these effects could certainly be found if they existed without some compensating effect to mask them. As is well known, these effects have never been found; the first conclusively negative results were obtained in the celebrated experiments of Michelson and Morley, and several other optical investigations have also failed to show the expected results. On the electrical side the problem has been attacked by Trouton and Noble, who hung up an electrical condenser by a torsion wire and looked for a torque which, on the theory of a stagnant ether, ought to exist when the condenser is carried along by the earth. Although the sensitiveness of their experimental arrangement was ample for the observation of the expected second order effect, their result was also negative.
***
An excerpt from the Introductory:
There is at the present time a general consensus of opinion, among those best qualified to judge, that the fundamental facts of optics and electro-dynamics require us to assume that the ether does not partake (to any sensible extent) in the motion of material bodies which pass through it. The aberration of light is perhaps the most conspicuous of those phenomena which it has hitherto been found impossible to account for on any other hypothesis without becoming involved in serious difficulties. All the phenomena in which there is relative motion of the source of light with respect to the observer, or of a material medium (through which light is propagated) with respect to source and observer, appear to require the above assumption, even those which at first seemed to lead to a conclusion somewhat different in form. Thus the experiment of Fizeau, in which he compared the velocities of light when going with, and against, a stream of water, was interpreted by Fresnel as indicating a certain entrainment of the ether. This interpretation was based on Fresnel's theory of refraction, which assumed that the etherial density was increased in material media; and it is only the excess ether which must be carried by the matter. On the electron theory, however (and indeed on any resonance theory of dispersion and refraction) there is no excess density of the ether in ponderable bodies; and it is not difficult to see that Fizeau's experiment requires a stationary ether. A result which leads to the same view has been obtained in electro-dynamics by H. A. Wilson in measuring the electric force produced by moving an insulator in a magnetic field. All such experiments upon the effects of relative motion, so far as I know, give positive results which may be predicted from the hypothesis of a fixed ether, and the magnitude of the effects observed is in general of the same order as the fraction v/V, where v is the relative velocity involved, and V the velocity of light.
The theory of a stagnant ether leads us, however, in a no less direct manner to expect certain modifications in the phenomena of light and electricity when therein no relative motion of material objects, but when all the apparatus concerned as well as the observer are carried through the ether with the velocity v. The effects to be expected are of the order of (v/V) squared; this is a very small fraction even when v is the velocity of the earth in its orbit, but the possible accuracy of certain optical experiments is so great that these effects could certainly be found if they existed without some compensating effect to mask them. As is well known, these effects have never been found; the first conclusively negative results were obtained in the celebrated experiments of Michelson and Morley, and several other optical investigations have also failed to show the expected results. On the electrical side the problem has been attacked by Trouton and Noble, who hung up an electrical condenser by a torsion wire and looked for a torque which, on the theory of a stagnant ether, ought to exist when the condenser is carried along by the earth. Although the sensitiveness of their experimental arrangement was ample for the observation of the expected second order effect, their result was also negative.
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Applications of the Lorentz-FitzGerald Hypothesis to Dynamical and Gravitational Problems
Applications of the Lorentz-FitzGerald Hypothesis to Dynamical and Gravitational Problems
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940013066755 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Leila's Books |
| Publication date: | 09/03/2011 |
| Series: | The American Journal of Science , #24 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 390 KB |
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