A Quick History of the Aether

The concept of Aether is not new. Historically, the Aether was the prevailing theory in what later became modern physics. Ancient Greek philosophers discussed Aether, and the theory continued in acceptance through millennia. In 1644, Rene Descartes put forth a philosophy of an all-pervading Aether with mechanical properties. "Descartes assumed that the Aether particles are continually in motion. As however there was no empty space for moving particles to move into, he inferred that they move by taking the places vacated by other Aether particles, which are themselves in motion. Thus, the movement of a single particle of the Aether involved the motion of an entire closed chain of particles; and the motions of these closed chains constituted vortices, which performed important functions in his picture of the cosmos." [i] The Descartes concept of Aether compares to fish moving in a tank of water. In the Descartes model, the Aether acts as both a solid and a fluid.

Whitaker wrote, "All space, according to the young [John] Bernoulli, is permeated by a fluid Aether, containing an immense number of excessively small whirlpools. The elasticity which the Aether appears to possess, and in virtue of which it is able to transmit vibrations, is really due to the presence of these whirlpools; for, owing to centrifugal force, each whirlpool is continually striving to dilate, and so presses against the neighboring whirlpools." [ii]

Fresnel"s formula, as developed by Eisenlohr, suggests that Aether is denser in matter than in free space.[iii] While Descartes saw the Aether as both a perfect solid and perfect fluid, Nikola Tesla deduced that the Aether had the qualities of a perfect gas. [iv] The above hypotheses are born out in the Aether Physics Model. The quantum Aether units are able to fold and bind to each other where subatomic particles are present. The rotating magnetic field of the Aether, driven by the enormous Gforce, manifests as a perfect solid, fluid, and gas, simultaneously. As explained below, it is because the mass associated with the Aether is reciprocal mass that Gforce and Aether have these abilities.

When Michelson and Morley conducted an experiment to identify the particulate medium as absolute space-time, resulting from Aether drifting through Earth as Earth moved through space, they found no overwhelming evidence for the magnitude of Aether drift they expected. However, they did measure an Aether drift. Dayton Miller later conducted extensive tests that verified an Aether drift relative to the Earth at about ten thousand kilometers per second.[v] The results indicated that if Aether exists, it must drag relative to Earth [vi], which Augustin Fresnel also posited.[vii] Since the prevailing understanding of Aether did not easily accommodate Aether dragging along with the planet, many touted this as evidence against the existence of the Aether. This premature conclusion against a dragging Aether also caused many to proclaim the erroneous assumption that the Michelson-Morley experiments showed absolutely no Aether drift.

Further speculating on the structure of the Aether, Albert P. Carmen wrote, "We can think of the ether as having an indefinitely large number of infinitesimal "ether dipoles." [viii]

Albert Einstein invented his own principle of a space-time/mass-energy tensor and attributed it to Ernst Mach. He essentially stated that space-time acts upon mass and mass acts upon space-time. However, Einstein"s view changed on this matter several times over several years, due to his inability to pinpoint a precise physics basis for his General Relativity Theory (GRT). As a result, aspects of Einstein"s earlier erroneous thoughts present as valid physics concepts today (Mach"s principle, cosmological constant), this despite that Einstein ended up disowning these ideas due to their conflicting nature with GRT.[ix][x]

Albert Einstein did not disprove, nor did he attempt to disprove, the existence of the Aether. On May 5, 1920 at the University of Leyden, Einstein gave a lecture [xi] in which he defended the existence of Aether, albeit, to his own liking. Einstein"s theory depended heavily upon keeping any reference to an absolute space-time from entering the physics, so he had to stay on top of the Aether discussions of his time. In a review of Miller"s work by Robert Shankland, Einstein posthumously brought pressure to bear against Dayton Miller"s work and Shankland attempted to write off Miller"s measured Aether drift as temperature anomalies within the apparatus.[xii]

The APM substantially quantifies the earlier concepts of Aether, including Lorentz's transformations. It also provides a solid foundation for Einstein"s GRT, although it does not support his Special Relativity Theory.

Goals and Objectives

The APM has the capacity to explain all aspects of physics. However, the theory is new and space is limited, so we will present some essential foundations in this paper. Some concepts may not seem comprehensive in presentation; however, our book, Secrets of the Aether [xiii], further develops the APM.

The Gforce quantifies as the cause of Aether. Aether in turn quantifies as the non-material environment in which matter exists. Understanding the quantum environment is essential for understanding how quantum matter moves and how the Gforce produces the electrostatic, electromagnetic, and gravitational forces. From this new understanding of Aether, the APM proposes a mathematically correct Unified Force Theory, and as such, succeeds in unifying all the forces with simple, mathematical laws.

[i] Sir Edmund Whittaker, A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity; The Classical Theories (London; New York, American Institute of Physics, 1987) p. 6

[ii] Ibid pp. 95-96

[iii] The Ether, Science, Vol. 18, No. 447. (Aug. 28, 1891), pp. 119-122.

[iv] Lawrence M. Cockaday, New York Herald Tribune, (Sept. 22, 1929), pp. 1, 29.

[v] Dayton C. Miller, Science, New Series, Vol. 63, No. 1635 (Apr. 30, 1926), pp. 433-443

[vi] "The outcome of the Michelson - Morley experiment would, therefore, suggest that the ether is dragged along with the earth, as far as the immediate neighborhood of the earth is concerned." Peter Gabriel Bergmann, Introduction to the Theory of Relativity (New York, Prentice Hall Inc., 1947) p. 27

[vii] Quoted from Abraham Pais, Subtle Is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982) p. 113.

[viii] Albert P. Carman, Science, New Series, Vol. 71, No. 1834 (Feb. 21, 1930), pp. 214-215.

[ix] Robert Matthews, Science, New Series, Vol. 263, No. 5147. (Feb. 4, 1994), pp. 612-613

[x] John D. Norton, General Covariance and the Foundations of General Relativity: Eight Decades of Dispute, Rep. Prog. Phys. 56 (1993) pp. 791-858 printed in UK.

[xi] Michel Janssen et al, The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein Vol. 7, The Berlin Years: Writings , 1918 " 1921 (Princeton University Press, 2002) pp. 305"309; 321

[xii] Robert S. Shankland, Science, New Series, Vol. 176, No. 4035 (May 12, 1972), pp. 652-653

[xiii] David W. Thomson and Jim D. Bourassa, Secrets of the Aether; Second Edition (Alma, IL, The Aenor Trust, 2005)