Romun Nose

In the formulation of Special Relativity (SRT) Einstein assumed that the atmosphere of the earth extended only to a certain altitude, and that beyond this space was a total vacuum.

“Half a century ago, (i.e. 1950′s) most people visualised our planet as a solitary sphere travelling in a cold, dark vacuum of space around the Sun.”1

Accordingly he firstly further assumed (out of sheer necessity) that light needed no medium for transmission, and secondly that, rather than it accelerating to infinity within this vacuum as some suggested, it would travel in it at a velocity as indicated by experiments using the moons of Jupiter as a yardstick, and in SRT accordingly used this as a basis for the suggestion that light speed is invariable throughout the universe.

As kinetic theory then stated that the gases at sea level were volumetrically 99.9% a vacuum, he also assumed that the velocity of light, in passing from the supposed vacuum of space, would not be inhibited by the meagre distribution of atomic matter within the earth’s atmosphere, and so the velocity here would also be c.

It is now known that a vacuum is ‘a philosophical concept with no basis in reality’2, and that in space throughout the universe there is a consistent distribution of matter at varying densities.

“Absolute vacua cannot be created or found. — for example interplanetary space is not a vacuum, but has density ρ = 10−29g.cm.−3 or 10−5 protons cm.−3. The Universe itself is not a vacuum but has various densities associated with itself -” 3

Thus it is now known that space is not a perfect vacuum, and the cosmic microwave background shows that there is a consistent distribution of matter throughout the vast regions of inter-galactic and inter-stellar spaces in the universe.

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Since the early 1980′s images constructed from data obtained by the technology of electron microscopy have provided a visual confirmation of the ultimate, natural division of matter. But, while this is acceptable empirical proof of the existence of atoms and of their structural arrangements in solid matter, these images show no sign of the motion, or of the separation of atoms in macroscopic matter that is a core assumption of current atomic theory. Instead these images give a clear impression of an ‘apparent continuousness’ (1) of atoms.

The historical origins of this concept of the separation of atoms by a volume of ‘empty space’ go back to Greek philosophers of around 2500 years ago, who invented the vacuum in order to be able to explain the fluidity of air and water with their ‘billiard ball’ type atoms.

In 1644 Torricelli was generally assumed to have created a perfect vacuum in his experiments with mercury, which contradicted the then generally accepted Aristotelian wisdom that this state was not possible in any circumstance. It can be no coincidence therefore that three years later, in 1647, Gassendi resurrected Democritus’ ‘kinetic’ atomic theory, which was dependent on its existence.

When Torricelli’s apparatus was later shown by Pascal to be an indicator of atmospheric pressure, this “supported the belief that the atmosphere is only a thin layer surrounding the earth, and that outer space is empty” (2). This belief of space as essentially a vacuum perpetuated until the mid 1900′s – “Half a century ago, most people visualised our planet as a solitary sphere traveling in a cold, dark vacuum of space around the Sun.” (3)

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Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity, presented around the turn of the last century, were said to be confirmed in two main ways, firstly in providing an explanation, where the application of classical Newtonian mechanics could not, for the slight precessive aberration in the orbit of Mercury, and secondly, and more importantly, by the results of the observations of stars close to the suns surface during the eclipse of the sun in 1919 that confirmed that the observed position deviated fractionally (1-2 seconds of arc) from the true position.

It was the general belief of scientists at this time that the Michelson and Morley experiments on the velocity of light in the 1880’s were a confirmation of the, then long-held assumption of many scientists, that the atmospheric matter of the earth extended to a certain (undefined) altitude whereupon the pure vacuum of space began.

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