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From: tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Michelson Morley experiment (actually, Ether)
Message-ID: <833@ihlpg.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 12-Jul-85 13:20:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlpg.833
Posted: Fri Jul 12 13:20:33 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 15:05:51 EDT
References: <374@sri-arpa.ARPA> <578@petsd.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 28

> []
> In article <374@sri-arpa.ARPA> mikes@AMES-NAS.ARPA writes:
> >  Dear Eric 
> >...
> > WHAT DO YOUR ( UGLY ) IMAGES OF compressed ether provide (to others) ??
> 	The answer is, simply: a way of seeing one kind of
> physics (electricity and magnetism) in terms of another kind
> of physics (fluid flow).  Analogies of this sort are helpful
> when they illuminate one or both kinds.  In the nineteenth
> century, many physicists, including Maxwell, tried out
> different kinds of mechanical analogies for electromagnetism.
> For details, see E. T. Whittaker, A History of Theories of the
> Aether and Electricity.  
> 	I agree that Eric should get more specific and precise
> mathematical content into his analogy.  Whittaker will show
> him how it's done.
> Christopher J. Henrich
-------------------------------------------
More specific and precise! It would be an improvement if Eric's posting
had any mathematical or physical content at all.  Analogies of this
sort CAN be helpful, but they can also be obfuscatory and futile.
Eric's images are much more complicated than electromagnetism,
at least to me and other readers.  If he could formulate a mathematical
analogy between electromagnetism and fluid flow, it would be most useful,
because fluid flow is so damn complicated!  However, don't hold your
breath.
-- 
Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL  ihnp4!ihlpg!tan