jackokie wrote: ↑Sat Mar 04, 2023 6:06 pm
There’s a number of reasons, but the biggie is that the Michelson-Morley experiment (and all subsequent replications) showed it was impossible to measure the speed of the Earth relative to the Aether.
Except that he's 100% misinformed on this point. regurgitating textbook vomit.
1. MM detected an ether wind speed of 7 - 11 km/sec (iirc). NOT ZERO.
2. 7km/sec is pretty fast. if you don't believe me, get your car up to that speed and stick your head out the window.
3. Relativists claimed MM a failure and falsification of ether theory because the prevailing static ether theory of the day required a much higher speed.
4. Relativity requires no ether, and thus a speed of 0. So in that sense, MM falsified relativity, not the ether.
5. Modified ether theor(ies) exist(ed) that do not require a high speed near the earth's surface, such as a dynamic dragged ether. So at most, one can correctly claim that MM falsified a particular variant of ether theory -- and supported other(s).
6. MM measurements were performed in a single day (afternoon) in a basement. Did not check for any variations over time. Not enough to draw any serious conclusions.
7. Some other null result duplications did things like placing the interferometer inside steel pipes, which effectively block the ether wind according to some ether theory, and seemingly emperical evidence.
8. Dayton Miller later built a much more sensitive instrument and performed detailed long term studies on a mountain top. With it, he confirmed MM's speeds, and a bit higher. Also he shows sidereal variations (with stars/interstellar), and was able to correctly compute the axis of solar system travel in galactic space. based on ether wind measurements.
9. Einstein wrote that if Miller's observations are correct, relativity is dead/falsified.
10. After Miller died, one of Einstein's acolytes did a hatchett job on Miller's work. unclear if Einstein was behind it, or simply looked the other way.
11. A couple of 21st century experiments have confirmed the ether wind using other instruments / experiments.
12. Miller may have misinterpreted some of his own data. Demeo later reviewed the raw data and made some corrections to the conclusions.
All this and much much more detail and info in James Demeo's book:
The Dynamic Ether of Cosmic Space: Correcting a Major Error in Modern Science He also has a published paper on the same topic and a website.
I would encourage everyone to read Demeo's work.