Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract
SEP 01, 2009
DOI: 10.1063/1.4797204
Life certainly would have been easier for Albert Michelson and Edward Morley if only they hadn’t reified the ether! Then they’d have been free to do less difficult things than look for evidence of it. After all, it was a perfectly useful abstraction for physicists who thought all waves require a medium.
More about the authors
Joseph Isler, (jri2101@columbia.edu), Columbia University, New York City, US .
© 2009 American Institute of Physics
