Equivalence Principle and Ether: Two Revolutionary Kernels of Einstein’s General Relativity ()
ABSTRACT
Einstein’s discovery of the Equivalence Principle is
to be considered as the most fundamental concept at the origin of his General
Relativity. I highlight that the ether problem is related with Enstein’s
conception of gravitational waves as a perturbation of the space-time
curvature, formalized as a specific space-time process, and not as the effect
of a whatever supporting medium. Quite differently, the nineteenth century
field theory of gravitation supported by physicists such as Maxwell, Heaviside,
and Hertz, was based on a search for substantial ether, and on a parallelism with Maxwell’s
theory of electromagnetic waves. The negative results of their theories proved
that parallelism was a wrong approach. Einstein’s genius superseded their
approach by considering that it was not a matter of the ether’s constitution,
but of a fundamental change in the role and nature of physics. In my paper I
refer to Einstein’s different approaches to ether since his 1905 Special
Relativity up to his 1950’ views. I argue that his different attempts were
symptoms of the difficulty of his revolutionary innovation.
Share and Cite:
D’agostino, S. (2016) Equivalence Principle and Ether: Two Revolutionary Kernels of Einstein’s General Relativity.
Advances in Historical Studies,
5, 240-253. doi:
10.4236/ahs.2016.55019.
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