Need Help :( (1 Viewer)

[Kpopaddicr]

When they use a term in physics such as aether model, does that just refer to aether or does it mean something else? And also how is an aether model an absolute frame of reference?

 

[Nailgun]

Aether model is the scientific concept. That is aether is the medium in which light travels, is the fabric of space, has certain properties (great elasticity, extremely low density, permeates all matter), and it is the absolute frame of reference.

It was well established that motion was relative by Galileo way before anyone and that speed was determined by your frame of reference, so when James Maxwell worked out the electromagnetic waves travel at 3 x 10^8 in a vacuum, it preempted the question; what was this speed relative to? The aether model pretty much describes aether as the fabric of space, and so it gave something that theoretically everything else would be relative too. It seemed logical that there would be some kind of absolute reference, and so aether was what it was called.

 

[leehuan]

Aether model is the scientific concept. That is aether is the medium in which light travels, is the fabric of space, has certain properties (great elasticity, extremely low density, permeates all matter), and it is the absolute frame of reference.

It was well established that motion was relative by Galileo way before anyone and that speed was determined by your frame of reference, so when James Maxwell worked out the electromagnetic waves travel at 3 x 10^8 in a vacuum, it preempted the question; what was this speed relative to? The aether model pretty much describes aether as the fabric of space, and so it gave something that theoretically everything else would be relative too. It seemed logical that there would be some kind of absolute reference, and so aether was what it was called.

Though wait. I wasn't reading this properly - did you establish that the aether was also the medium that light was believed to through?

 

[InteGrand]

Though wait. I wasn't reading this properly - did you establish that the aether was also the medium that light was believed to through?

He says in his first line about the aether model: "That is aether is the medium in which light travels"

 

[Nailgun]

Though wait. I wasn't reading this properly - did you establish that the aether was also the medium that light was believed to through?

Ahaha it wasn't really how I'd structure an exam response, I was more just trying to explain it

 

[leehuan]

Might've been why I missed it my bad