Abstract
IN the most valuable supplement to NATURE of March 7, through his Kelvin lecture to the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Dr. Jeans gives a splendid summary of the present position in physics, showing how Lord Kelvin's “two clouds” obscuring the connexion of radiation and matter, instead of dispersing, have expanded to fill our scientific vision. Incidentally, Dr. Jeans makes it clear that in his view the terms ether and force are unnecessary, since all that they connote can be represented equally well by pure geometry, and indeed much better than by Lord Kelvin's curiously mechanical mode of attack. It is marvellous what hyper-geometry can be made to express, and what high reasoning about reality can be thus carried on. But here comes the point: I suppose that much the same can be said about the non-necessity of the idea of matter. That too can be expressed geometrically, and apparently dealt with analytically, as the impenetrable centre of a warp in space, and as ; an expression which Prof. Eddington says behaves exactly like matter, except that it is more continuous than atomic, adding that the mind could scarcely recognise anything simpler as substantial and permanent (“Math. Theory of Relativity,” p. 120). If relativists will grant that ether and matter can be equally dispensed with, a supporter of the ether need have no conflict with them: for ultimate questions about reality and existence can be left to philosophers.
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LODGE, O. Ether and Matter and Relativity. Nature 115, 419 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/115419b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/115419b0
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