The Eather

Aether, after the Greek mythology and according to Hesiod, was the son of Erebos (dark place in Underworld) and of Nyx (the Night). He was the personification of the clear upper air breathed by the Olympus Gods and Goddesses. Descartes realized that waves need a medium. He was convinced that light was made of waves and he wisely named the required medium éther after the Greek God. I am of an opinion that the English word should be spelled aether, not ether, in order to be respectful to Descartes' language. Please note that the acute accent replaces a second vowel. What is more, the Greek word aither also strongly suggests it.

This site does not explain how the aether works mechanically. Any medium capable of transmitting regular longitudinal waves could do the job. In order to keep things simple, one should postulate that the aether is perfectly homogeneous and that it preserves energy without any loss. Then it would transmit sinusoidal waves whose speed c is constant. It is the well known speed of light, but please remember that it is also that of matter waves and all invisible forces transmitted by aether waves.

So the aether is also the medium for electrons as spherical standing wave systems. Because such systems constantly radiate spherical waves, they need replenishment. This is why the aether should also have been filled with energetic waves since its very beginning.

Nobody is entitled to think that the aether does not exist.

The true mechanism for all physical phenomena is still totally unknown. Until it is well established, the wave hypothesis remains the most acceptable one.

The true nature of particles such as electrons, protons or neutrons is still a mystery. The very existence of hypothetic particles such as photons or neutrinos was never demonstrated. They were just highly attractive hypotheses. Thus they tend to evolve into certitude without any additional reasonable argument. Up to now, Descartes' explanation about the light remains the only acceptable one: it is made of waves and it behaves like waves propagating by means of a medium. Except for very rare misleading, misunderstood and oversimplified phenomena, the light does not behave like particles as far as its quantum properties are attributed to electrons.

Nobody ever reasonably explained how gravity works, either. So, until somebody furnishes an acceptable explanation, we must admit that we are dealing with the unknown. Forces such as gravity or light could very well work using just waves. Surely, gravity cannot "bend space". From a mechanical point of view, this is totally absurd.

Christiaan Huygens.

Descartes discovered that light is made of waves and that it should be carried by a medium. His pupil Christiaan Huygens described aether as "subtle air spheres in contact" in order to explain the way such waves are transmitted. Note that he immediately tried to find the mechanism! Unfortunately, such an attitude becomes more and more the exception nowadays.

Descartes was right: the light is made of waves and it needs a medium. And Huygens was right: the aether needs a mechanism. This web site shows that the existence of the aether is highly plausible. It is especially compatible with Relativity.

Augustin Fresnel.

Augustin Fresnel thought that the light waves should vibrate transversally according to his observations on light polarization through Iceland Spath. Then he supposed that aether should be made of material points separated by intervals.

However, such transverse vibrations do not really occur. Light is made of regular longitudinal waves and the phases only vibrate transversally. Light waves are composite in nature so they can carry transverse phase patterns. The material points idea definitely remains the best one, though. Such a structure is the simplest possible and it nevertheless explains two important phenomena.

Firstly, our analysis of wave behavior through such points (we prefer "granules" because a point cannot exist) indicates that some anomalies should occur. For example, the wave speed slows down if the wavelength is very short. Just a few granules for a whole wavelength introduces a "quantum" effect.

Secondly, material points becoming more and more distant can explain the Universe expansion. In such a case, very fast and distant galaxies would still be at rest with respect to the aether points over there.

The program below shows that Mr. Anselme Dewavrin's algorithm, which is derived from Euler's method, does not yield exactly the same results as the accurate y = sin(2 * pi * x / lambda) procedure, especially when the discrete steps are insufficient as compared to the wavelength. It turns out that the so-called error in Euler's method is actually a true fact. The aether does produce this error, it is really made out of points or granules which transmit energy by discrete steps.

Aether01_Dewavrin.bas Aether01_Dewavrin.exe

Another example is the always positive medium, which cannot produce perfectly symmetrical sine waves for very high amplitude levels. The high amplitude (high compression) level is unlimited while the lower amplitude reaches a limit, which is the absence of granules inside a given space. I am quite sure that this anomaly explains very well the electron amplification because standing waves produce such an asymmetry.

So granules whose unique property is to repel one another is the perfect medium for aether waves. A similar model with both attractive and repulsive properties allowed Mr. Delmotte (see the Virtual Aether below) to elaborate a fantastic computerized medium. Six months later, Mr. Marcotte invented a different algorithm which is a bit simpler, and then a more complex but faster one.

Oscillations.

Clearly, waves exhibit oscillations much similar to those of a pendulum. Galileo discovered that such oscillations are synchronous, and this explains why the wave speed remains constant whatever the frequency or amplitude.

In November 2005, I simplified Mr. Delmotte's algorithm and applied it to the pendulum. The goal was to show that it should respect Hooke's law "Ut tensio sic vis", which means that the force exerted by a coiled spring, for example, must be directly proportional to its extension.

In October 2006 I found that a similar and strangely simple algorithm could produce a sine curve. It must be placed in a computer program loop:

inertia = inertia – energy

energy = energy + inertia / step

One must firstly establish the wavelength (lambda) in pixels, for example lambda = 100, in order to obtain at least one complete rotation. Then the energy exchange step is given by:

step = (lambda / (2 * pi)) ^ 2

The Virtual Aether.

Mr. Philippe Delmotte invented the Virtual Aether in June 2005. His starting point was the Verlet algorithm, but he added Newton's laws for inertia and energy. This algorithm can produce some sort of "heat", a local vibration of granules.

Mr. Jocelyn Marcotte invented his own algorithm, which is totally different, in January 2006. For example, if the energy exchange step is complete, it does not produce heat.

Mr. Paul Falstad uses Java Applets. His algorithm appears to be more complicated. He informed me that he found it on the Internet and that he couldn't say who invented it.

http://www.falstad.com/ripple/

Mr. Philippe Delmotte is working on the English version of his program, which I will put on this site to download. However, you can make virtual "ripples on a pond" right now using my own programs. They are fantastic!

Aether08.bas Aether08.exe

WaveMechanics05.bas WaveMechanics05.exe

I dare say that this virtual medium is promised to a fantastic future. Because waves are becoming important, such programs will be progressively upgraded and they will be a must for all students in the world. I could already check a lot of wave phenomena, especially in a moving frame of reference; this greatly helps for studying Relativity.

For instance, Lorentz explained ten years before Einstein that the Michelson interferometer could not reveal the aether wind because it contracts.

The point is that the 45° transparent mirror (the beam splitter) should also undergo a contraction, making the reflecting surface angle different. According to standard rules in optics, the beam would not be reflected to a 90° angle any more. Many scientists argued that the interferometer contraction was impossible. Poincaré especially spoke about an "ad hoc" explanation without any valid reason and finally, Lorentz's hypothesis was ruled out. It was a huge mistake. Matter contraction really occurs in such a way that any observer moving along with a wave system can no longer detect its motion. All seems to happen as if he was at rest. This is Relativity.

Stunning Videos.

In October 2007, I made several DivX MPEG-4 videos. They show clearly that the mirror must be tilted to an additional angle in order to reflect the light beam to the correct 90° angle. I made one for all axes and directions, and also with the incorrect 45° angle. It turns out that the new angle is consistent with Lorenz's contraction factor. So the interferometer must contract: there is no other logical explanation.

Lorentz was right. It is that simple. Matter contraction was not obvious in 1895 but it is now easily foreseeable on condition that matter is made of waves. Clearly, all wave phenomena are submitted to the Doppler effect.

As far as I know, the light beam behavior inside the moving apparatus has never been displayed. In my opinion, this experience is even more important than Michelson's. Thanks to Mr. Philippe Delmotte's Virtual Aether, it is now possible. Many scientists don't even know that the light beam waves must be tilted to the theta angle = arc sin (v / c) in order to propagate transversally. Moreover, the light beam itself and Fresnel's diffraction pattern also undergo the on-axis contraction.

Here are the Videos:

Michelson_axial_forward_51_angle.avi

Michelson_axial_forward_45_angle.avi

Michelson_axial_backward_51_angle.avi

Michelson_axial_backward_45_angle.avi

Michelson_orthogonal_forward_51_angle.avi

Michelson_orthogonal_forward_45_angle.avi

Michelson_orthogonal_backward_51_angle.avi

Michelson_orthogonal_backward_45_angle.avi

Michelson_orthogonal_unmoving_45_angle.avi

I also made more videos showing how the Doppler effect transforms most common wave phenomena. I used the Lorentz transformations (see Oct. 15 below), which produce a slower frequency, hence no transverse wavelength contraction.

Doppler_Lorentz_two_sources.avi

Doppler_Lorentz_2D_Airy_disk.avi

Doppler_Lorentz_2D_standing_waves.avi

Doppler_Lorentz_2D_axial_Fresnel_diffraction.avi

Doppler_Lorentz_2D_transverse_Fresnel_diffraction.avi

Believe me, this is even more important than Michelson's results in order to explain Relativity. The Virtual Aether is a true laboratory where a lot of decisive experiences can be conducted.

Now everybody knows what is really going on. No more absurd explanations. Just facts.

Dewavrin's algorithm.

In October 2006, M. Anselme Dewavrin derived the algorithm below from Euler's method. This algorithm was almost identical to mine:

sine = sine + cosine * 2 * pi / lambda

cosine = cosine – sine * 2 * pi / lambda

Energy and inertia are replaced by sine and cosine. This amazingly simple calculus placed in a computer loop indeed allows one to obtain a sinusoidal curve, the same one which could be obtained using Euler's method. Here is a program showing this:

Aether01_Dewavrin.bas Aether01_Dewavrin.exe

Surprisingly, Newton's laws involving energy and inertia produce the same results as Euler's method, which is purely mathematical. Because Mr. Delmottes virtual medium can use both of them without any difference, and because Mr. Jocelyn Marcotte's algorithm also produces exactly the same anomaly, it turns out that the results are highly reliable.

A quantum effect.

Euler's method is an approximation: it introduces some degree of error which is greater when the step is important as compared to the wavelength. The program above shows that the shorter the wavelength, the more unstable the curve.

Actually, this so-called error appears to be a true fact: genuine waves really behave like that. Each aether granule transmits energy step by step. This discrete procedure introduces quantum properties.

On the one hand, the result is a slower wave if the wavelength is rather small with respect to the number of granules involved. On the other hand, standing waves produce a local granule concentration, where the wave speed is greater. Then all aether waves crossing such concentrated areas must undergo a lens effect.

More electron properties unveiled.

This anomaly fully explains why the electron frequency reaches a limit. It is the highest possible, and finally all electrons oscillate on the same very high frequency.

It also explains the lens effect inside its standing wave nodes and antinodes, hence its amplification by constant surrounding aether waves incoming from all directions.