Ether and Relativity

Abstract

The relative retardation of clocks, predicted by the restricted theory of relativity, demands our recognition of the causal significance of absolute velocities. This demand is also implied by the relativistic equations of electrodynamics and even by the formulation of the restricted theory itself. The observable effects of absolute accelerations and of absolute velocities must be ascribed to interaction of bodies and physical systems with some absolute inertial system. We have no alternative but to identify this absolute system with the universe. Thus, in the context of physics, absolute motion must be understood to mean motion relative to the universe, and any wider or more abstract interpretation of the "absolute" must be denied.