Aether and Gravitation

by William George Hooper

A magnet will attract a piece of iron with a certain force, but it is equally true that the iron attracts the magnet with an exactly equal and opposite force. We might even extend the application of this Third Law to a falling stone in its relation to the earth. Thus, if a stone is dropped from a high altitude to the surface of the earth, although the motion seems to be all in one direction, yet if the Third Law holds good, then the earth is attracted by the stone in exactly an equal, but opposite direction, to that in which the earth attracts the stone.

As, however, the mass of the earth is very great compared with that of the stone, it follows that the velocity of the stone compared with the velocity of the earth, must be very much greater, in order that the forces shall be equal.

The application of this Third Rule of Motion to planetary and celestial phenomena is therefore philosophical, in that its conception agrees with experience and observation.

Thus, while it is true that the sun attracts each of the planets in his system, it is equally true that the planets, in their turn, attract the sun with an exactly equal and opposite force. But the velocity of motion induced by the earth's attractive power upon the sun, would be less than the velocity of motion induced by the sun's attractive power upon the earth, although the two forces would be equal and opposite, simply because force, being a compound quantity, is dependent upon the mass of a body as well as upon its velocity.

Not only, however, is it true that the sun and all the planets jointly attract each other, but it is equally true that the planets attract each other also, with an exactly equal and opposite effect. Indeed, as Gravitation is universal, it has to be conceived that there are no two bodies existing, but what the Third Law of Motion equally applies to those two bodies; so that equality of action and re-action is as universal as the Law of Gravitation itself.

In coming to a conclusion with reference to Philosophy and the Laws of Motion, I wish to say that I am strongly of the opinion that the day has come, or will soon come, when they will pass away and give place to a more direct and simple method of working of the great Law of Gravitation. I look upon the Laws of Motion as part of the scaffolding which has been used to build up the Law of Gravitation. That Law has now been erected, and stands firm and secure in its position in the universe. Whatever changes may take place in its scaffolding, the Law itself will stand out with greater beauty and clearness, if we could but see the perfected structure, apart from the props and helps which have assisted in its successful erection and completion. As Dr. Larmor said, in his address to the British Association, 1900: “There has even appeared a disposition to consider that the Newtonian principles, which have formed the basis of physical phenomena for nearly two centuries, must be replaced in these deeper subjects by a method of more direct description of the cause of the phenomena. The question has arisen, as to how far the new methods of aetherial physics are to be considered as an independent departure; or how far they form the natural development of existing dynamical science.”

I hope, therefore, to be able in this work to do something towards clearing the completed Law from some of the outside props, which have long hidden the simplicity, beauty and harmony of the physical working of Gravitation from the eyes of those who feign would see its wonderful mechanism.

In the elaboration and development, therefore, of the physical cause of Gravitation, it will be necessary to conceive a medium, whose properties and motions shall be able to account for all the movements of the planets, comets, suns and stars that the Laws of Motion now account for. Instead, however, of there being several Laws purely and simply mathematical in their application, there will be one physical medium, which will by its properties and motions account for--and that in a satisfactory manner--all the motions of the heavenly bodies. That such a medium is required in the scientific world is proved by the statement made by Professor Glazebrook, in his work on J. C. Maxwell, page 221, where he says: “We are still waiting for some one to give us a theory of the Aether, which shall include the facts of electricity and magnetism, luminous radiation, and it may be Gravitation.”

Art. 17. Summary of the Chapter.--In summing up the contents of this chapter, we find therefrom, that there is a Universal Law in existence that is known as the Law of Gravitation. The physical cause of this Law, however, is unknown; Newton suggesting that it was due to the properties of an aetherial medium that pervaded the universe.

To form a right conception of this medium, and to develop the hypotheses of the same on strictly philosophical lines, it is essential for us to know the rules which govern the making of any hypothesis.