Abstract
I AM indebted to Prof. Eddington (NATURE, April 14, p. 201) for pointing so decisively to the full issues of my argument (NATURE, April 7, p. 171). The position may be clinched thus:—The relativists may take away pure space as an objective entity, but in so doing they, are “ætherising” or materialising the space of the physical universe. So the physicists get back their “æther” with something more; and “space”, a fundamental fact of human experience which has been such a metaphysical enigma right down the ages, at least becomes intelligible as the substratum of matter. The identification of æther and space provides a mechanism of the universe, and will enable us to picture physically what is meant by such phrases as “world-lines” and “twists in space”.
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BONACINA, L. “Space” or “Æther”?. Nature 107, 234 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/107234b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/107234b0
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