Who was it that did the experiment that disproved the idea of ether, when did they do it, and how did it go?
bamf
Ha. A friend of mine is doing a thesis on this very subject.
If I recall correctly… and I’m sure more science-aware Dopers will be along any second… it was the Michelson-Morley experiment.
Actually, it was when they stopped believing in the ether bunny.
The Michelson-Morley experiment proved that light travelled at a constant speed from any frame of reference. Did it have anything to do with the ether?
The point of the ether was that is was believed that light had to travel through something, like sound does through air. So light would come form a disturbance of this ether. Of course there were many problems with this concept. If light was transmitted by this medium then by walking on a dark night, light would simply come from walking through the medium and it would appear light outside. It was never actually believed to be the correct answer but it worked as a model in describing light as a wave.
Well, according to the Wikipedia entry, the M-M experiment was designed to help describe the properties of that ether, which was the accepted theory at the time. When the experiment suggested there was no such thing, both Michelson and Morley had a little trouble accepting that idea.
In fact, some relatively reputable scientists continued to believe in the ether theory as late as the 30’s or 40’s. My friend’s paper focuses on just such a scientist, from our local university.
This subject is better spelled Aether to keep it from being confused with the anesthetic ether.
Why does this question sound like homework to me?