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From Evolution of Physics by Einstein

III. FIELD, RELATIVITY – Ether and motion

The situation grows more and more serious. Two assumptions have been tried. The first, that moving bodies carry ether along. The fact that the velocity of light does not depend on the motion of the source contradicts this assumption. The second, that there exists one distinguished c.s. and that moving bodies do not carry the ether but travel through an ever calm ether-sea. If this is so, then the Galilean relativity principle is not valid and the speed of light cannot be the same in every c.s. Again we are in contradiction with experiment.

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I do not think that moving bodies carry ether along. When a disturbance moves through a medium it does not carry the medium along. According to the wave theory, light would be a disturbance in ether. Therefore, the motion of light would not carry ether along. Light has no mass, but it has some inertia that is proportional to its frequency. This inertia manifests as momentum. So light moves through ether at a great but finite speed.

Please note that we are viewing ether as a “field” with zero inertia. It does not have motion, or lack of motion, in some absolute sense.

According to the Disturbance hypothesis, matter is also a disturbance moving through ether. The inertia of a body, such as earth, manifests as mass because it is several orders of magnitude greater than the inertia of light. So a body is expected to move through ether at a speed several orders of magnitude slower than the speed of light.

Current estimates put the speed of earth to be about 10⁴ times slower than the speed of light, but it assumes the inertial basis for light to be the same as that for earth. When we use the inertial basis to be ether, the speed of earth is estimated to be 2⁵⁰ or 10¹⁵ times slower than the speed of light. This is a very rough estimate but it is enough to show that the motion of earth relative to ether would be virtually undetectable. Experiments, even more accurate than Michelson-Morley experiment, shall be incapable of detecting earth’s motion relative to ether. It is then no surprise that the motion of source will have no effect on the velocity of light.

Einstein’s conclusion that moving bodies do not carry ether along is correct because even solid bodies move as disturbance in ether per the Disturbance Hypothesis. But to Einstein this meant that the Galilean relativity principle was not valid and the speed of light could not be the same in every coordinate system.

But this contradiction can be explained by the Disturbance Hypothesis. Experimentally, the speed of light appears to be same in every coordinate system because any difference is virtually impossible to detect. Furthermore, Galilean relativity principle needs to be expanded to account for the differences in inertia per the disturbance levels.

The famous Michelson-Morley experiment is fully understandable, without contradiction, in the light of Disturbance Hypothesis.

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Einstein says in THE EVOLUTION OF PHYSICS:

We must, therefore, give up the analogy between sound and light waves and turn to the second possibility: that all matter moves through the ether, which takes no part whatever in the motion. This means that we assume the existence of a sea of ether with all c.s. resting in it, or moving relative to it. 

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I think that the analogy between sound and light waves is valid once we view the phenomena with some understanding of the differences in their Disturbance Levels.

Matter appears to move through ether because the two exist at entirely different Disturbance Levels.

Forward motion of the disturbance is many orders of magnitude higher at the level of ether (DL50), than at the level of matter (DL100). On the other hand, internal agitation is many orders of magnitude higher at DL100, than at DL50. These two levels hardly contribute  to each other in terms of either motion or agitation.

Ether is simply there in the background of matter.

The actual background is formed by space at DL0. We may then view all phenomena  as follows.

1. Light wave or Ether at DL50.

2. Sound wave or Matter at DL100

There is confusion because we are assuming our Coordinate System at DL100. From this coordinate system we assume the speed of light to be a constant at 3 x 10⁸ m/s. It makes better sense to use DL0 as the basis of the Coordinate System. Then we can properly evaluate the relationship between the disturbance levels of ether and matter.

The present Coordinate System is “matter-centric” because it is based on our perception at the level of matter. This is similar to the pre-Galileo “earth-centric” view of the universe.

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Comment (Apr 13, 2026)

I still consider that ether takes part in the motion as matter moves through it, just like air takes part in the motion as sound moves through it. Air condenses to form sound wave. Similarly, ether condenses to form matter wave. So, when light moves through ether, ether condenses to form the light wave. That condensed ether, as light wave, has inertia.

The higher is the condensation of ether, the greater is the inertia and the lesser is the velocity.

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References:

Mindful Subject Clearing – Physics

The Disturbance Hypothesis of Light

KHTK Postulates for Physics

Evolution of Physics by Einstein

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From THE EVOLUTION OF PHYSICS by Einstein and Infeld (Chapter III, Section “Ether and Motion”):

We are sitting in a closed room so isolated from the external world that no air can enter or escape. If we sit still and talk we are, from the physical point of view, creating sound waves, which spread from their resting source with the velocity of sound in air. If there were no air or other material medium between the mouth and the ear, we could not detect a sound. Experiment has shown that the velocity of sound in air is the same in all directions, if there is no wind and the air is at rest in the chosen c.s. [coordinate system.]

Let us now imagine that our room moves uniformly through space. A man outside sees, through the glass walls of the moving room (or train if you prefer), everything which is going on inside. From the measurements of the inside observer he can deduce the velocity of sound relative to his c.s. connected with his surroundings, relative to which the room moves. Here again is the old, much discussed, problem of determining the velocity in one c.s. if it is already known in another.

The observer in the room claims: the velocity of sound is, for me, the same in all directions.

The outside observer claims : the velocity of sound, spreading in the moving room and determined in my c.s., is not the same in all directions. It is greater than the standard velocity of sound in the direction of the motion of the room and smaller in the opposite direction… In the case of the sound wave in the room moving uniformly, relative to the outside observer, the following intermediate steps are very essential for our conclusion:

The moving room carries the air in which the sound wave is propagated.

The velocities observed in two c.s. moving uniformly, relative to each other, are connected by the classical transformation.

The corresponding problem for light must be formulated a little differently. The observers in the room are no longer talking, but are sending light signals, or light waves in every direction. Let us further assume that the sources emitting the light signals are permanently resting in the room. The light waves move through the ether just as the sound waves moved through the air.

Is the ether carried with the room as the air was? Since we have no mechanical picture of the ether, it is extremely difficult to answer this question. If the room is closed, the air inside is forced to move with it. There is obviously no sense in thinking of ether in this way, since all matter is immersed in it and it penetrates everywhere. No doors are closed to ether… There is not the slightest doubt as to the clarity of this verdict, although it is obtained through rather indirect experiments in view of the great technical difficulties caused by the enormous value of the velocity of light. The velocity of light is always the same in all c.s. independent of whether or not the emitting source moves, or how it moves.

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In case of sound, the vibration of the object creates displacement in the medium that is at the same macro level.

In case of light, the “vibration” is occurring at a subatomic level, and so is the “displacement” of the “medium”. It is a whole different level.

Motion at macro level may be compared to another motion at macro level in a meaningful way. Similarly, motion at subatomic level may be compared to another motion at subatomic level in a meaningful way. But we lose the relative significance when we try to compare motion at macro level to the motion at subatomic level. This is a problem of scales.

We may be able to express this problem better in terms of disturbance levels. The macro level may be approximated as DL100, where the frequency of electromagnetic disturbance is so high, and variations so rapid, that it looks “solid”. The subatomic level may be approximated as DL50 where the frequency of the electromagnetic disturbance is less “dense” by a factor of 2⁵⁰. The motion of a wavelength at one level shall appear to be shrunk by a factor of 2⁵⁰ at another level. This comparison is hardly significant to the senses.

The factor of 2⁵⁰ is likely to be inaccurate being a rough estimation, but it provides an explanation in terms of the orders of magnitude involved. The motion of the source of light at DL100 will hardly contribute to the motion of light at DL50.

The speed of light shall appear to be constant in all coordinate systems from the perspective of DL100.

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Let’s imagine a drum inside another drum. They both are rotaing about the same axis. The outer drum is rotating at the speed of light of DL50. The inner drum is rotating at the ordinary speed of DL100. Let us also suppose that we are looking at a certain characteristic through a narrow slit.

If we are at the inner drum looking at that characteristic in the outer drum, our c.s.(coordinate system) shall be the inner drum, and we shall see that characteristic in the outer drum changing very rapidly.

But if we are at the outer drum looking at that characteristic in the inner drum, our c.s.shall be the outer drum, and we shall see that characteristic in the inner drum changing very slowly.

In fact, when the c.s. is at DL100, and the background is DL50, the background shall appear to be full of light rays bouncing around at incredible speeds, as is the case in our experience.

But if the c.s. is at DL50 and the background is at DL100, the background shall appear to be dark and solid with a feeling of being totally closed in.

Einstein considers all c.s. to be at DL100 only. From that c.s. the differences in the surrounding speed of light shall not be appreciable because of the order of magnitude involved, and the speed of light shall appear to be constant.

The limitation in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is that Einstein does not consider the coordinate system at any level other than the material level of DL100.
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