Unread post
by crawler » Sat Nov 28, 2020 8:39 pm
I think that somewhere Tesla mentions that DeVolson Wood calculated that an Earth sized amount of aether would have a mass of 1.7 pounds, & that Tesla calculated about 0.1 pounds (i forget the number). But i couldnt find a free copy of DeVolson Wood's book to see how he did it. All i could find is the following commentarys.........
The LUMINIFEROUS ^THER. By Professor De Volson Wood. (about 1880 i think).
I supposed that I had reported Herschel so faithfully that there was no occasion for criticism, and 1 now infer, from the statements
of Prof. Chase in the last October number of this Journal, that had I used " hypothesis " for "assumption" he would have
been satisfied. I waive this point without discussion. The " questionable as to the correctness of the facts," that writer has
misapplied. In the August number, he referred to "results which I supposed were new." As I had not confided that secret to any
person, the correctness of the statement might be questioned. On page 300, he continues : " Prof. Wood says that ' in a
pound of the aether there is 100,000,000,000 times the kinetic energy of a pound of air.' This discrepancy arises from his inad- vertently omitting one cipher and making a rougher approxima- tion than Herschel." This is an error. The "inadvertence" belongs to Prof. Chase. What I said was " in a pound of aether there is some 100,000,000,000," etc. I inserted the word " some" on purpose that I might agree approximately with those who should make a microscopic examination of the figures ; knowing that in an off-hand statement of this kind, in a number of such magnitude, it was of little consequence whether the left hand figure were seven, eight, or even nine times as large. The word " some " inserted as it was, shows that it was only a rough approximation.
Then he proceeds to say: "Wood's result being 8 X 10^11 nearly, while Herschel's is 811,801,000,000." I supposed that I must have given the result apparently attributed to myself, but I am unable to find it in my article ; and I believe that it is a result of Prof. Chase's computation, and if so, why did he not make it agree with Herschel's. I do not, however, object to the value given, for I get 814,400,000,000, by using 186,300 miles as the velocity of light per second. Moreover, is not Herschel's result "8 X 10^11 nearly? " But these hair-splittings belittle the subject.
For the benefit of those who are interested in the subject, but have not time to study it, I will give a very brief statement of the
[(page464) Wood. [J. F. U]] manner in which the problem has been attacked. Herschel, on the hypothesis that the aether is as dense as air at sea-level, esti- mated the ratio of the elasticity to the density of the aether to be 17 X 10^12 pounds per square inch. He made no estimate as to
the actual density, nor actual tension, but gave it as his opinion that its tension was very great. Thomson, on the assumption
that the mean displacement of a particle from its normal position was one-fiftieth of a wave length, found a corresponding density of
the aether. Maxwell, in his article on "Ether '"in the Encyclopedia Britannica, IX edition, on the hypothesis that the displacement
was yl-^ of a wave length, obtained his estimate of the density and elasticity. Other writers have obtained results on this principle.
Preston, on the hypothesis that the tension of aether exceeds the force necessary to separate the atoms of oxygen and hydrogen
in a molecule of water, and that the probable inferior limit of this tension was 500 tons per square inch, computed its corresponding density.
In my solution no such arbitrary assumption or hypothesis was made. It was simply assumed that the aether conformed to
gaseous laws, and the two constants — the solar constant and the velocity of light — were the data for making the equations
numerically determinate in regard to the elasticity and density. This and other processes and results given in my article have nut been attacked so far as I am aware.
page466
The Luminiferous /Ether. By De Volson Wood, C. E., M. A. Van Nos- trand's Science Series, No. 85. Price, $0.50. Reprinted from the Philo- sophical Magazine, with additions. New York. 1886.
In view of the importance which has been assumed by molecular hypo- theses, in scientific investigation, the vague ideas which are still enteitained respecting molecular aether — so vague as to have led to variations of more than a million-fold in estimates of aethereal density — are a reproach to science.
This reproach, our author has, very commendably and very judiciously, en- deavored to overcome, and, considering the number of novel questions he has had to meet, he has been very successful.
There have been too many printer's errors, and the very serious collateral misunderstandings, in which others had already given a wrong bias to popu- lar interpretations, have already been noticed in the Journal ; but his pro- posal on pp. 9-1 1 is admirably and satisfactorily stated.
He asks, p. 10-11, " Can the kinetic theory, which is applicable to gases in which waves are propagated by a to-and-fro motion of the particles, be
applicable to a medium in which the particles have a transverse movement,, whether rectilinear, circular, elliptical, or irregular ? In favor of such an application, it may be stated that the general formulae of analysis by which wave-motion in general, and refraction, reflection, and polarization in partic- ular, are discussed, are fundamentally the same; and in the establishment of the equations the only hypothesis in regard to the path of the particle is — it will move along the path of least resistance. The expression V 2 oc e ~ 6 is generally true for all elastic media, regardless of the path of the individual molecules. Indeed, granting the molecular constitution of the aether, is it not probable that the kinetic theory applies more rigidly to it than to the most perfect of the known gases?"
This is the hypothesis of Herschel, the only one which has ever led to any numerical verification, or ever received any practical confirmations. It has given, correctly, the elasticity which the aether would have at the same density as the atmosphere, from which it is easy to find the elasticity for Thomson's or any other supposed density. If Prof. Wood will examine all the best density- estimates and give us one which is as accurate as Herschel's combined elas- ticity-density estimate, he will restore the credit which he helped, wrongly but unintentionally, to take from Herschel, and he will help remove all claim Dec, 1886.] Book Notices.
p467
to scientific value from two solutions which are based on the same data, and one of which is more than 1,600,000 times as great as the other.
On page 5, of his brochure, Prof. Wood says: "Beyond these facts, no progress can be made without an assumption." There is no assumption in
saying that action and reaction must always be equal. The action of radiation from every point of the sun, produces a wave-velocity in the aether which is the same as that of light, and the rotary time-integral of the cyclical reactions of solar centripetal gravitation also produces a velocity, at every point, and for the whole cycle, equivalent to the velocity of light. The sum of the im- pulses communicated by the acceleration of solar-superficial gravitation during any cyclical rotation on its axis (gt), equals twice the average veloc- ity which would be communicated if the efficiency of all the impulses were retained ^. The sum of the wave-disturbances of solar radiation during a solar rotation on its axis could have no more fitting representative reaction than the sum of the reactionary gravitating accelerations on the oscillating particles themselves.
If we represent the time of solar rotation by t, solar-superficial gravitating acceleration by g, and the velocity of light by v^, this perpetual equality of acceleration and re-acceleration may be represented by the equation = 7/ 2 ^
By the law of conservation of angular momentum, / oc r 2 , while g oc 1 , so r 2
that gt is constant at all stages of nebular condensation, and the dependence of solar rotation, planetary revolution and luminous radiation upon a single energy at the centre of our solar system has been recorded in the heavens since the day of the great fiat, " Let there be light." P. E. C.
STR is krapp -- & GTR is mostly krapp.
The present Einsteinian Dark Age of science will soon end – for the times they are a-changin'.
The aether will return – it never left.