THE ETHER HAS DENSITY.
It is common to have the degree of density of the ether spoken of in the same way, and for the same reason, that its elasticity is spoken of. The rate of transmission of a physical disturbance, as of a pressure or a wave-motion in matter, is conditioned by its degree of density; that is, the amount of matter per cubic inch as determined by its weight; the greater the density the slower the rate. So if rate of speed and elasticity be known, the density may be computed. In this way the density of the ether has been deduced by noting the velocity of light. The enormous velocity is supposed to prove that its density is very
small, even when compared with hydrogen. This is stated to be about equal to that of the air at the height of two hundred and ten miles above the surface of the earth, where the air molecules are so few that a molecule might travel for 60,000,000 miles without coming in collision with another molecule. In air of ordinary density, a molecule can on the average move no further than about the two-hundred-and-fifty-thousandth of an inch without such collision. It is plain the density of the ether is so far removed from the density of anything we can measure, that it is hardly comparable with such things. If, in addition, one recalls the fact that the ether is homogeneous, that is all of one kind, and also that it is not composed of atoms and molecules, then degree of compactness and number of particles per cubic inch have no meaning, and the term density, if used, can have no such meaning as it has when applied to matter. There is no physical conception gained from the study of matter that can be useful in thinking of it. As with elasticity, so density is inappropriately applied to the ether, but there is no substitute yet offered.