an extension justified by the negative results of certain experiments (Michelson and Morley, Trouton and Noble) by which it was sought to discover the absolute motion of the earth, or the æthereal wind which must traverse all terrestrial objects. The second postulate is the generalization of a fundamental principle in the theory of æthereal or electromagnetic undulations.
But if these two principles, derived from quite different chapters of physics, have been fully accepted severally by modern physicists, their origin has been almost forgotten; an ingenious structure arose upon their union: the theory of relativity. This theory, while repudiating according to Einstein and others a theoretical conception which had given occasion for the formulation of the second postulate (the æther), serves well to explain the insuccess of the above-cited experiments.
Now our imagination, accustomed, as W. Ritz has said, to "substantialize" physical phenomena, if it easily grasps the essence of the first postulate, does not do so in the case of the second; and the more so since, as has already been said, some adherents to relativistic theories do not retain as necessary the existence of a medium of transmission (the æther) in order to explain the constancy of c. Moreover on the second postulate, or, more precisely, on a certain portion of this, depend the conclusions which appear artificial or extraordinary in the whole relativistic theory[1]. The second postulate must be understood in the sense that an observer who measures the velocity of light finds always the same value if both he and the source be at rest, relative or (if the possibility be admitted) absolute, or if the source or the observer, or both, have a uniform motion of translation. In short, the second postulate affirms the absolute independence of c of any contingency whatever of uniform motion of translation of the source or of the observer.
It is known that an hypothesis of a mechanical character (emissive or ballistic), according to which to the ordinary velocity of light must be added that of the source, can explain, like the theory of relativity, the failure of the above-quoted experiments. But this hypothesis is radically in contrast with the electromagnetic theory, and consequently is not much favoured[2]. But in any case laboratory experiments can be conceived which should decide between the
- ↑ Carmichael, Phys. Rev. xxxv. p. 168 (1912).
- ↑ In this connexion should be recalled the important critical work of W. Ritz (Œvres, p. 317) which perhaps has not been taken into sufficient consideration by physicists.
