Difference between revisions of "Aether"

Revision as of 14:50, July 22, 2007

This page lists articles that have similar names. To remove any ambiguity, the differences are described here.

Aether - In Greek mythology, one of the primordial deities representing the upper sky.
Aether - or luminiferous aether, a postulated medium that transmits light waves.

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-Light is a wave, and the ''luminiferous aether'' (or ether) is defined to be whatever medium transmits the light waves.
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-The [[Michelson-Morley experiment]] in 1887 failed to detect the aether. H. [[Poincare]] conjectured that the aether may be unobservable, and invented special [[relativity]] based on the notion that the aether may be superfluous. A. [[Einstein]] published conflicting opinions on whether the aether exists.
+*[[Aether (mythology)|Aether]] - In Greek mythology, one of the primordial deities representing the upper sky.
+*[[Aether (science)|Aether]] - or ''luminiferous aether'', a postulated medium that transmits light waves.
-Today we have no firm answer on whether the aether exists or not. [[Quantum electrodynamics]] (QED) teaches that when light goes through a vacuum, it is really going through a sea of virtual particles. Cosmologists say that the vacuum is really filled with ''dark energy'', and it is unknown whether that has any relation to the aether concept. The pre-relativity aether theory has been superseded, but the precise nature of the aether is an open question.
-[[Category:Science]]