Re: The most ridiculous science mistake in history.

aether wrote:

>
Without an aether, the state of physics is little different than "angels
pulling/pushing around objects in accordance with the force laws".

"But neither Maxwell nor his followers succeeded in elaborating a mechanical
model for the ether which might furnish a satisfactory mechanical interpretation
of Maxwell's laws of the electro-magnetic field. The laws were clear and simple,
the mechanical interpretations clumsy and contradictory....
"the whole change in the conception of the ether which the special theory of
relativity brought about, consisted in taking away from the ether its last
mechanical quality, namely, its immobility...."
"More careful reflection teaches us however, that the special theory of relativity
does not compel us to deny ether. We may assume the existence of an ether; only we
must give up ascribing a definite state of motion to it, i.e. we must by abstraction
take from it the last mechanical characteristic which Lorentz had still left it."
"What is fundamentally new in the ether of the general theory of relativity as
opposed to the ether of Lorentz consists in this, that the state of the former
is at every place determined by connections with the matter and the state of the
ether in neighbouring places, which are amenable to law in the form of differential
equations; whereas the state of the Lorentzian ether in the absence of electromagnetic
fields is conditioned by nothing outside itself, and is everywhere the same...."
"Recapitulating, we may say that according to the general theory of relativity space is endowed with physical qualities; in this sense, therefore, there exists an ether. According to the general theory of relativity space without ether is unthinkable; for in such space there not only would be no propagation of light, but also no possibility of existence for standards of space and time (measuring-rods and clocks), nor therefore any space-time intervals in the physical sense. But this ether may not be thought of as endowed with the quality characteristic of ponderable media, as consisting of parts which may be tracked through time. The idea of motion may not be applied to it."
https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Extras/Einstein_ether/