Page:WitteSagnac1.djvu/7

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Yet, because the effect is caused by rotation, its occurrence is a necessary postulate not only from the standpoint of the aether theories, but equally well also from the anti-aether standpoint.

c) Thus this effect doesn't prove the aether.

6. The correctness of assertion a) follows without further ado, by thinking of the system as having a rectilinear uniform translation instead of the rotation process.[1] Then the effect is missing.

I omit the prove (which is in general easily given) because a remark by Sagnac himself in an older work[2] seems to speak for the fact, that his view doesn't contradict that of mine in this point.

Fig.3

7. Also with respect to assertion b), a schematizing sketch shall suffice:

First it is easily given: The occurrence of the effect is also then a necessary postulate, when one considers the process during the rotation, not in the way of § 4 (rotating disc thought as at rest, relative aether wind all around), but from

  1. For example that one (changing continuously), which is approximately executed by point individually at every moment (in the direction of the circle tangent, the velocity is as given above).
  2. G. Sagnac, Congrès International de Radiologie et d’Électricité, p. 221, Brussels 1911.