Dr. N.L. Kachhara
Scientists have hypothesized the existence of ether as a medium motion. Isaac Newton contended that light was made up of numerous small particles. This could explain such features as light's ability to travel in straight lines and reflect off surfaces. In order to explain refraction Newton postulated an "Ethereal Medium" transmitting vibrations faster than light. He said, "I do not know what this Ether is", but that if it consists of particles then they must be "exceedingly smaller than those of Air, or even than those of light." Christian Huygens, prior to Newton, had hypothesized that light was a wave propagating through an ether, but Newton rejected this idea. However, a century later, Young and Fresnel revived the wave theory of light when they pointed out that light could be a transverse wave rather than a longitudinal wave. A transverse wave apparently required the propagating medium to behave as a solid, as opposed to a gas or fluid. Later, Maxwell's equations showed that light is an electromagnetic wave. Maxwell's equations required that all electromagnetic waves in vacuum propagate at a fixed speed c. As this can occur in one reference frame in Newtonian physics the ether was hypothesized as the absolute and unique frame of reference in which Maxwell's equation hold. That is, the ether must be "still" universally, otherwise could vary from place to place. Nevertheless, by this point the mechanical qualities of ether had become more and more magical: it had to be a fluid in order to fill space, but one that was millions of times more rigid than steel in order to support the high frequencies of light waves. It also had to be mass less and without viscosity; otherwise it would visibly affect the orbits of planets. Additionally it appeared it had to be completely transparent, non dispersive, incompressible and continues at a very small scale.
Scientists argued that at any point there should be one special coordinate system, "at rest relative to the ether." Maxwell noted in late 1870s. that detecting motion relative to this ether should be easy enough light traveling along with the motion of Earth would have a different speed than light traveling backward, as they would both be moving against the unmoving ether It was thought that earth's motion through ether would create a type of wind that bends light waves the same way that wind in the atmosphere bends sound waves. The famous Michelson Morley experiment in 1887 did not support this observation and was the first clear demonstration that something was seriously wrong with the "absolute ether" concept. A conceptual different experiment carried out by Trouton and Noble in 1903 also confirmed the MM experimental result. These "ether- wind" experiments led to its abandonment by some scientists and to a flurry of efforts to "save" ether by assigning it ever more complex properties by others. A completely different attempt to save" absolute" ether was mode in the Lorentz Fitzgerald contraction hypothesis. Albert Einstein's special theory of relatively dispensed with the requirement of ether. Lorentz on his side continued to use the ether concept. In 1911 he said "whether there is an ether or not, electromagnetic fields certainly exist, and so also does the energy of the electrical oscillations" so that," if we do not like the name of "ether", we must use another word for it." In the meantime Einstein changed his opinion about the ether concept. In 1920 he said that general relativity attributed tangible physical properties to space including some kind of medium for light, although not a material one."
Einstein compared the gravitational field and the electromagnetic field with ether. He said, "If we consider the gravitational field and the electromagnetic field from the stands point of the ether hypothesis, we find a remarkable difference between the two. There can be neither space nor any part of space without gravitational potentials, for these confer upon space its material qualities, without which it cannot be imagined at all. The existence of the gravitational field is inseparably bound up with the existence of space. On the other hand a part of space may very will be imagined without an electromagnetic field; thus in contrast with the gravitational field, the electromagnetic field seems to be only secondarily linked to the ether, the formal nature of the electromagnetic field being as yet in no way determined by that of gravitational ether.
Since according to our present conceptions the elementary particles of matter are also, in their essence, nothing else than, condensation of the electromagnetic field, our present view of the universe presents two realities which are completely separated from each other conceptually, although connected causally, namely, gravitational ether and electromagnetic field, or as they might also be called space and matter.
........... Recapitulating, we may say that according to the general theory of relativity space is endowed with physical qualities, in this sense, therefore, there exists 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 ponder able media, as consisting of parts which may be tracked through time. The idea of motion may not be applied to it."
Later scientists also supported the concept of ether. Michelson stated in 1923 that even if relativity is here to stay we don't have to reject the ether. Herbert Ives wrote in 1940 that in the light of the experimentally found variation of clock rate with motion, this experiment does detect ether. G. Builder said in 1958 that there is no alternative to the ether hypothesis. Professor Sherwin supported in 1960 the "philosophical point of view" of Ives and Builder. Paul Dirac stated in 1951 that "we are rather forced to have ether."
Today, the majority of physicists hold that there is no need to imagine that a medium for light propagation exists. They believe that neither Einstein's general theory of relativity or quantum mechanics has need for it and that there is no evidence for it. As such, classical ether is an unnecessary addition to physics that violates the principle of Occam's rajor. Some physicists hold that there remain a number of problems in modern physics that are simplified by an ether concept, so that Occam's razor doesn't apply.
A number of new ether concepts have been proposed in recent years. However, most of these ethers differ considerably from the classical aluminiferous ether. Ole D. Rughede said in a paper published in 2006 "we assume to find in every point of space a flow in all directions of radiant energy from all astrophysical objects. The radiant energy will we name the "ether", and since it is present throughout the universe, we will call space the "Ether- space". Presuming the ether the medium sustaining all physical fields and forces the ether- space is the universal physical space." Starkman's ether affects the pull of gravity, not the movement of light waves, David Thomson and Jim Bourassa of Quantum Ether Dynamics Institute proposed (2006) a non-material ether as rotating magnetic field which is supposed to describe the quantum structure of the universe. This ether has qualities of reciprocal mass and charge in addition to the dimensions of length and time and is also the source of curved geometry as expressed by general relativity theory.
We note from above that scientists hypothesized luminiferous ether mainly for two reasons.
- To have a medium of propagation for light waves.
- To satisfy the requirements of some equations like Maxwell's equations and Einstein's general relativity.
Light as particle can travel in vacuum but as wave it requires a medium for propagation. Longitudinal waves can travel in fluids but a solid like medium is required for propagation of transverse waves. Dictated by such requirements and imagination of scientists the concept of ether changed in its course of history and eventually the basic aluminiferous ether assumed the form of gravitational field and electromagnetic field.
These and the ether of David Thomson are more like varganas of Jain philosophy which are also electromagnetic fields and provide a source for formation of sub atomic particles as shown in chapter 5.
The dharma is not a medium of motion like ether. According to Jain philosophy the medium of motion is akasa which is described below.
The Jaina concepts of dharma and adharma are more comprehensive and broad based. The scientific concepts are related to the physical world, for obvious reasons, but Jaina concepts fulfill the needs of both the Jiva and material world. According to Jaina philosophy a Jiva having Karman body and tejas body migrates through space from one life to another. The soul in pure form is non-material but karman body and tejas body are made up of varganas which are supposed to be plasma like. A liberated pure soul travels from this land to end of loka in one 'samaya'. The dharma and adharma assist this kind of journey of Jiva besides helping paramanu, vargana and aggregate matter in their motion and rest. Such comprehensive view is a specialty of Jain philosophy and is missing in scientific thinking, obviously so because main stream science does not recognize the existence of soul. It can be expected that with advancement as and when the existence of soul is accepted by science the Jaina concepts of dharma and adharma will also find acceptance in scientific community. The realities dharma and adharma having opposite character probably fulfill an additional function of maintaining a balance in the loka.
In other words, the loka maintains its finite shape because of dharma and adharma. In the absence of dharma and adharma the matter may either spread out in the infinite akasa or may contract into a Big Crunch by the force of gravity, a fear often expressed by scientists, and the loka may loose its identity and existence. The dharma and adharma are essential components of the scheme required for the existence and functioning of loka. The other essential components in the scheme are akasa and kala as described below.
