Outline the features of the aether model for the transmission of light.
  • In 1801, Thomas Young showed that light could interfere with each other through some experiments and soon light was decided to be a WAVE.
  • Before the concept of Electromagnetic Waves was accepted, people believed that all waves required a medium to travel through. (See Prelim: The world communicates)
  • Having recognised that light was a wave, the scientists thought that light needed a medium to travel through, seeing how most other waves known at the time needed one such as sound.
  • The Aether was believed to have the following properties:
    • Perfectly Transparent
    • Permeated ALL matter
    • Filled ALL of space
    • Low to No density (massless)
    • Rigid AND/OR Elastic to support these high velocity waves. (Yeah I have no idea either)
  • However, the existence of Aether could not be proved. One experiment which had failed to prove this was the Michelson Morley experiment which attempted to find an aether wind but failed.
  • Eventually, it was found that light did not require a medium to propagate. In fact, light was a self-propagating wave. As there was proof for this new model, unlike the Aether model, the newer model was accepted and the Aether model was eventually phased out as noone used it any more.
  • If you think this is dumb, remember that everyone was dumb back in the 1800s. Cut them some slack, man.