Quote: experiments have shown that ether, i.e., absolute space, does not exist

Quotation

Does our ether actually exist? ... [p. 171, after discussing experiments that would require the concept] Will [these experiments] ever be accomplished? I do not think so, and I shall explain why; and yet, it is not absurd, for others have entertained this view. ... [p. 171] I must explain why I do not believe, in spite of Lorentz, that more exact observations will ever make evident anything else but the relative distances of material bodies. Experiments have been made that should have disclosed the terms of the first order; the results were nugatory. ... [Lorentz] showed that the term of the first order should cancel each other, but not the terms of the second order. Then more exact experiments were made [e.g., by Michelson], which were also negative; neither could this be the result of chance. An explanation was necessary, and was forthcoming; they always are; hypotheses are what we lack the least.   Google-1   Google-2

Published before 1923

Additional Titles

Quote: hypotheses are what we lack the least

Related Topics

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