Potential Matter

Abstract

ALLOW me to refer once more to the subject of my letter of August 18, in order to draw attention to two previous investigations with which, at the time of writing, I was unacquainted. Prof. Karl Pearson has, under the title of “Ether Squirts” (American Journal of Mathematics, vol. xiii. No. 4), worked out mathematically the theory of matter considered as sources and sinks of fluid, and draws attention to the fact that this theory implies the existence of “negative matter,” which may exist outside the solar system. More recently A. Föppl, in a communication to the Munich Academy, dated February 1, 1897 (Sitzungsber. der k. b. Akad. d. Wiss., 1897, i. p. 93), has published a short paper under the title, “Ueber eine mögliche Erweiterung des Newton'schen Gravitations-Gesetzes.” Starting from the idea that there is a difference in kind between the electrical and magnetic fields of force on the one hand, and the gravitational field on the other, because the flux of force through a sphere converges towards zero with increasing radius of the sphere for the electric and magnetic fields, but not, as usually defined, for the gravitational field, Föppl gives the necessary extension to Newtonian law of gravitation in order to remove the distinction. This, of course, implies “negative matter.” There is a marked difference between the expression for the energy of the gravitational field on Föppl's hypothesis with that which is derived from the ether squirt theory; but it is not necessary to enter into this question.