Cosmology Old and New

Author(s): G R Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 51

SÜTRA 1 (Dharma)
53
appeared at once. For it was proved to be (1) thinnei than the thinnest gas; (2) more rigid than steel; (3) absolutely the same everywhere; (4) absolutely weightless; and (5) in the neighbourhood of any electron, immensely heavier than lead."54 Again we have from F.M. Denton's Relativity and Common
19
sense :
"The Newtonian ether is rigid, yet allows all matter to move about it without friction or resistance; it is elastic but cannot be distorted: it moves but its motion cannot be detected; it exerts force on matter but matter exerts no force on it; it has no mass nor has it any parts which can be identified; it is said to be at rest relatively to the fixed stars,' yet the stars are known to be in motion relatively to one another."
In the Restless Universe by Max Born, we read:
"A hundred years ago the ether was regarded as an elastic body, something like a jelly, but much stiffer and lighter, so that it could vibrate extremely rapidly. But a great many phenomena, culminating in the Michelson experiment and the theory of Relativity, showed that the ether must be something very different from ordinary terrestrial substances."
"Now an ether is also required for electricity and magnetism;.
9955
Again from The Nature of the Physical World by A.S. Eddington, the great authority on the subject, we have:
"This does not mean that the aether is abolished. We need an aether.........In the last century it was widely believed that aether was a kind of matter, having properties such as mass, rigidity, motion like ordinary matter. It would be difficult to say when this view died out...... Nowadays it is agreed that aether is not a kind of matter. Being non-material, its properties are sui generis (quite unique) 56 Characters such as mass and rigidity which we meet with in matter will neutrally be absent in aether but aether will have new and definite characters
53. "A serious difficulty, arises at this point. It is difficult to imagine the planets as moving with their enormous velocities through (ether) a jelly-like substance without any loss of energy. The motions of the planets are perfectly regular and show no signs of any loss of this kind."
(Edwin Edser in Light.)
54. An Outline for Boys and Girls and Their parents edited by Naomi Mitchison, p. 314.
55. Restless Universe by Max Born, published in 1935; p. 115.
56. This is a brilliant confirmation of Jaina view.