Abstract
PROF. H. DINGLE'S very interesting article1 has laid bare in the clearest and most unambiguous terms the dubious validity, not so much of the distinction which the formulæ incidental to the historical development of science have imposed on our fundamental conceptions, resulting in an apparent deep-rooted contradiction between the equations representing the reaction of matter towards motion and temperature, but of an extension of the special theory of relativity which at present appears to pass without comment or challenge. It is usual to assume—and Einstein has himself lent authority to the assumption—that because the relativistic form of the equations of motion (apparently) for ever bar any measurement of absolute velocity relative to the framework of the universe, therefore absolute velocity with respect to any such framework does not exist; and, as a further extension, that it is trivial and useless to inquire what may be the quality of that framework, and whether or not there may be a luminiferous ether.
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Nature, 153, 736, 758 (1944).
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JESSUP, A. The Laws of Nature. Nature 154, 432 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154432a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154432a0
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