“That’s over and done with, the result was null!!” This is how physicists tend to dismiss any reference to the possibility of the existence of an aether like substance through which light propagates. The statement is based on the null result of the Michelson & Morley experiment. How potent is this argument? Does it need to be re-examined, or is everything Okay with accepting such a conclusion? If one looks at the way in which a wave travels one finds that there are certain criteria that are involved. For instance: (1) every wave is the transfer of energy through a medium. (2) the medium usually consists of minute elements such as molecules of air, water etc., (3) every wave follows the inverse square law for intensity equal to the inverse of the square over the distance from the source. (4) The speed of a wave remains constant if the medium through which it is travelling remains unchanged. (5) the properties of the wave are bounded by the dimensions of the medium it is travelling through. For instance, a wave in a rope would be bounded by the dimensions of the rope but the intensity of the wave would be dependent on the distance of the wave from the source. Its speed would be constant.
Given that this simple solution explains all the properties of a wave, it is surprising that such esoteric theories have been accepted for explaining identical phenomena when related to light. For instance, how does quantum mechanics explain the fact that light spreads out according to the inverse square law, where the area over which the wave acts increases directly as the square of the distance from the source. The answer is that QM uses Maxwell’s equations to explain how light spreads out according to the inverse square law but then has to use numerous normalization and quantisation processes to try and explain the quantum properties of light. Surely, this is a lot of work for something that obviously will not work: by its very definition a wave cannot be quantized. Again, how does the intensity of light vary with distance from the source? Why is light (Copenhagen Interpretation) as it travels from A to B, not ‘real’? Why does it have to exist as an abstract mathematical wave-function that travels through dimensions that are non-existent everywhere in the Universe? It is the elephant in the room, it is obvious that the existence of a medium is a one size fits all solution: such a medium would explain every property of light. Both quantum mechanics and relativity have gone out of their way to bend over backwards and undergo all kinds of distortion, to try and circumvent this simple fact. Today, the existence of dark matter with exactly similar properties to that of the aether, is totally ignored in the hope that it will go away. In fact there now exist theories that dark matter may not even exist!
Given that this simple solution explains all the properties of a wave, it is surprising that such esoteric theories have been accepted for explaining identical phenomena when related to light. For instance, how does quantum mechanics explain the fact that light spreads out according to the inverse square law, where the area over which the wave acts increases directly as the square of the distance from the source. The answer is that QM uses Maxwell’s equations to explain how light spreads out according to the inverse square law but then has to use numerous normalization and quantisation processes to try and explain the quantum properties of light. Surely, this is a lot of work for something that obviously will not work: by its very definition a wave cannot be quantized. Again, how does the intensity of light vary with distance from the source? Why is light (Copenhagen Interpretation) as it travels from A to B, not ‘real’? Why does it have to exist as an abstract mathematical wave-function that travels through dimensions that are non-existent everywhere in the Universe? It is the elephant in the room, it is obvious that the existence of a medium is a one size fits all solution: such a medium would explain every property of light. Both quantum mechanics and relativity have gone out of their way to bend over backwards and undergo all kinds of distortion, to try and circumvent this simple fact. Today, the existence of dark matter with exactly similar properties to that of the aether, is totally ignored in the hope that it will go away. In fact there now exist theories that dark matter may not even exist!
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