🚀 go-pugleaf

On Dec 11, 5:32 am, Pentcho Valev <pva...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Dec 10, 11:23 pm, PD (Paul Draper) wrote:
>
> > On Dec 10, 12:57 am, Pentcho Valev wrote:
>
> > > Again: Clever Draper, is the speed of light unaffected/affected by the
> > > movements of the observer according to Maxwell's electromagnetic
> > > theory?
>
> > Unaffected, according to Maxwell's equations, with the extra baggage
> > of the ether dropped and the principle of relativity included.
>
> John Norton, an Einsteinian immeasurably cleverer than you, says that,
> according to Maxwell's electromagnetic theory, the speed of light is
> (1) constant with respect to the ether and (2) unaffected by the speed
> of the emitter:

No, he does not. What he is recounting is what was in Einstein's head
AT THE TIME, which was a time when an ether was still conceptually
attached to electrodynamics, whether that was warranted or not. As I
said, both Maxwell and Einstein, through the thought process that
FOLLOWED, figured out that there was no need for that conceptual
attachment of an ether to electrodynamics.

What John Norton is trying (and failing) to convey to you is the
MISTAKE that was being made at the time, posing it as a problem to
solve, and then how that problem was in fact solved in the end. Which
resulted in the dismissal of the need for an ether.

>
> http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00002149/01/Norton.pdf
> John Norton: "The difficulty Einstein faced is that Maxwells
> electrodynamics cannot be an emission theory. One of the most
> important consequences of the theory is that light in a vacuum always
> propagates at the same speed, c=186,000 miles per second, WITH RESPECT
> TO THE ETHER. Its velocity of propagation is unaffected by the
> velocity of the emitter."
>
> If John Norton shared your view that, according to Maxwell's
> electromagnetic theory, the speed of light is unaffected by the speed
> of the observer as well, he would have written something like this:
>
> "The difficulty Einstein faced is that Maxwells electrodynamics cannot
> be an emission theory. One of the most important consequences of the
> theory is that light in a vacuum always propagates at the same speed,
> c=186,000 miles per second, WITH RESPECT TO BOTH THE ETHER AND THE
> OBSERVER. Its velocity of propagation is unaffected by the velocities
> of BOTH THE EMITTER AND THE OBSERVER."
>
> In other words, if you are right and Maxwell's electromagnetic theory
> says that the speed of light is unaffected by the movements of the
> observer, John Norton's original text can be characterized as
> suspiciously and unreasonably incomplete.
>
> Pentcho Valev
> pva...@yahoo.com