Duke :: Philosophy :: Faculty :: Susan G. Sterrett

"Sounds Like Light: Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity and Mach's Work on Acoustics and Aerodynamics" (Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 1-35, 1998)

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Abstract: I make sense of Einstein's respect for Ernst Mach's scientific work, especially in Einstein's development of the special theory of relativity, in which he dispensed with the presumption of the ether (a medium for the transmission of light). Mach's work on the Doppler effect and on sonic shock waves employed analogies between light and sound, and Mach explained the Doppler effect as a kinematic effect, independent of the existence of a wave medium.