Thought Experiment: Aether Medium

[libertyk]

TL;DR Summary

Possible properties of a hypothetical aether type medium.

I would like to conduct a thought experiment. If some form of medium exists, what would it be made of? What form would any constituent parts take? Would those parts exhibit any properties? How would they function as a medium? What relation would the medium have with atoms and other particle structures? Are atoms themselves somehow formed out of medium? If so, how? I have my own answers for all these questions, but would be interested in hearing your thoughts.

 

[Baluncore]

It would be invisible and undetectable. We would call it free space.

 

[Dale]

I would like to conduct a thought experiment.

That isn’t a thought experiment. A thought experiment is where you start with some physical law and apply that law to a hypothetical situation to determine the theorized outcome.

 

[libertyk]

I agree that it would be physically undetectable. However, in order to function as a medium, it would need to be composed of some constituent parts that interacted in some manner to facilitate the transmittance of waves. If you had to theorize about what would be happening at those scales, what form do you think that process would take?

It would be invisible and undetectable. We would call it free space.

 

[libertyk]

That isn’t a thought experiment. A thought experiment is where you start with some physical law and apply that law to a hypothetical situation to determine the theorized outcome.

Fair enough. Most of my work is in field theories, however, some would claim that perturbations of a ground state is simply a mathematical description used in place of physical mediums. My post is meant to explore the concept hypothetically.

 

[Dale]

If you had to theorize about what would be happening at those scales, what form do you think that process would take?

We don’t permit personal speculation here at PF, so it is not kind to encourage it.

 

[Dale]

Fair enough. Most of my work is in field theories, however, some would claim that perturbations of a ground state is simply a mathematical description used in place of physical mediums. My post is meant to explore the concept hypothetically.

It seems like you have a misunderstanding about the mission of PF. We do not speculate nor do we explore novel concepts. Our mission here is to educate about existing science, not to do new science.

I am closing this thread, and I recommend reading the forum rules to get a better idea about what we are about.