Sid Deutsch

Einstein's Greatest Mistake: Abandonment of the Aether Sid Deutsch

If a child wants proof, we can think of 10 different ways to show that we are surrounded by air, but we are, of course, normally unaware that we live at the bottom of an ?ocean? of air. It is claimed, in this book, that we are unaware, similarly, that we are surrounded by an atmosphere of aether. There is one major difference, however: We have not been able to detect the aether. Nevertheless, the aether provides a solution to the following mystery: How can light, or any electromagnetic wave, travel for billions of years across the vastness of the Universe, without losing any energy? The answer is that the Universe is filled with a light-transmitting medium, The Aether. The proof that there is an aether is the subject of the present book.

An intriguing?exploration of a fringe scientific theory. Luminiferous aether?or "light-bearing aether," a theory first postulated by Isaac Newton in the 18th century, later refined by James Clerk Maxwell in the 19th century and ultimately replaced by Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity?is most simply defined as the medium for the propagation of light. According to Deutsch, Einstein possessed the computational justification for the presumed existence of the aether, but decided to discard the principle since it was too cumbersome to work through to its logical conclusion. The author cites many landmark experiments, as well as countless algebraic equations and diagrams? May interest those well versed in high-level physics.

-Kirkus Discoveries