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Page 2
This dualism still confronts us in unextenuated form in the theory
of Hertz, where matter appears not only as the bearer of velocities,
kinetic energy, and mechanical pressures, but also as the bearer of
electromagnetic fields. Since such fields also occur _in vacuo_--i.e.
in free ether--the ether also appears as bearer of electromagnetic
fields. The ether appears indistinguishable in its functions from
ordinary matter. Within matter it takes part in the motion of matter
and in empty space it has everywhere a velocity; so that the ether
has a definitely assigned velocity throughout the whole of space.
There is no fundamental difference between Hertz's ether and
ponderable matter (which in part subsists in the ether).
The Hertz theory suffered not only from the defect of ascribing
to matter and ether, on the one hand mechanical states, and on the
other hand electrical states, which do not stand in any conceivable
relation to each other; it was also at variance with the result of
Fizeau's important experiment on the velocity of the propagation
of light in moving fluids, and with other established experimental
results.
Such was the state of things when H. A. Lorentz entered upon the
scene. He brought theory into harmony with experience by means of
a wonderful simplification of theoretical principles. He achieved
this, the most important advance in the theory of electricity since
Maxwell, by taking from ether its mechanical, and from matter its
electromagnetic qualities. As in empty space, so too in the interior
of material bodies, the ether, and not matter viewed atomistically,
was exclusively the seat of electromagnetic fields. According to
Lorentz the elementary particles of matter alone are capable of
carrying out movements; their electromagnetic activity is entirely
confined to the carrying of electric charges. Thus Lorentz succeeded
in reducing all electromagnetic happenings to Maxwell's equations
for free space.
As to the mechanical nature of the Lorentzian ether, it may be said
of it, in a somewhat playful spirit, that immobility is the only
mechanical property of which it has not been deprived by H. A.
Lorentz. It may be added that 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. How this is to be understood will forthwith
be expounded.
The space-time theory and the kinematics of the special theory
of relativity were modelled on the Maxwell-Lorentz theory of the
electromagnetic field. This theory therefore satisfies the conditions
of the special theory of relativity, but when viewed from the latter
it acquires a novel aspect. For if K be a system of co-ordinates
relatively to which the Lorentzian ether is at rest, the
Maxwell-Lorentz equations are valid primarily with reference to K.
But by the special theory of relativity the same equations without
any change of meaning also hold in relation to any new system of
co-ordinates K' which is moving in uniform translation relatively
to K. Now comes the anxious question:--Why must I in the theory
distinguish the K system above all K' systems, which are physically
equivalent to it in all respects, by assuming that the ether
is at rest relatively to the K system? For the theoretician such
an asymmetry in the theoretical structure, with no corresponding
asymmetry in the system of experience, is intolerable. If we assume
the ether to be at rest relatively to K, but in motion relatively
to K', the physical equivalence of K and K' seems to me from the
logical standpoint, not indeed downright incorrect, but nevertheless
inacceptable.
The next position which it was possible to take up in face of this
state of things appeared to be the following. The ether does not
exist at all. The electromagnetic fields are not states of a medium,
and are not bound down to any bearer, but they are independent
realities which are not reducible to anything else, exactly like
the atoms of ponderable matter. This conception suggests itself
the more readily as, according to Lorentz's theory, electromagnetic
radiation, like ponderable matter, brings impulse and energy with
it, and as, according to the special theory of relativity, both
matter and radiation are but special forms of distributed energy,
ponderable mass losing its isolation and appearing as a special
form of energy.
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. We
shall see later that this point of view, the conceivability of which
I shall at once endeavour to make more intelligible by a somewhat
halting comparison, is justified by the results of the general
theory of relativity.
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