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Aether (classical element)
 
 
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According to ancient and medieval science
History of science in the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, science progressed dramatically from the time of Ancient history in areas as diverse as astronomy, medicine, and mathematics. Whereas the ancient cultures of the world had developed many of the foundations of science, it was during the Middle Ages that the scientific method was born and science became a formal discipline separa...
, aether (Greek aither), also spelled æther or ether, is the material that fills the region of the Universe
Universe

The universe is defined as everything that physically exists: the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and momentum, and the physical laws and physical constants that govern them....
 above the terrestrial sphere
Sublunary sphere

The sublunary sphere is a concept derived from Greek astronomy. It is the region of the cosmos from the Earth to the Moon, consisting of the four classical elements: Earth , Water , Air , and Fire ....
.

Mythological origins
The word (aither) in Homeric Greek
Homeric Greek

Homeric Greek is the form of Ancient Greek that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. It is an archaic version of Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects, such as Aeolic Greek....
 means "pure, fresh air" or "clear sky", imagined in Greek mythology
Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
 to be the pure essence where the gods lived and which they breathed, analogous to the air
AIR

Air is the part of Earth's atmosphere that humans breath and as such Air .Air may also refer to:...
 breathed by mortals (also personified as a deity, Aether
Aether (mythology)

Aether , in Greek mythology, is one of the Protogenoi, the first-born elemental gods. He is the personification of the "upper sky," space, and heaven, and the elemental god of the "Bright, Glowing, Upper Air." He is the pure upper air that the gods breathe, as opposed to normal air , the gloomy lower air of the Earth, which mortals breathe....
, the son of Erebus
Erebus

In Greek mythology, Erebus or Erebos or Erebes was the son of a primordial god, Chaos , and represented the personification of darkness and shadow, which filled in all the corners and crannies of the world....
 and Nyx).






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According to ancient and medieval science
History of science in the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, science progressed dramatically from the time of Ancient history in areas as diverse as astronomy, medicine, and mathematics. Whereas the ancient cultures of the world had developed many of the foundations of science, it was during the Middle Ages that the scientific method was born and science became a formal discipline separa...
, aether (Greek aither), also spelled æther or ether, is the material that fills the region of the Universe
Universe

The universe is defined as everything that physically exists: the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and momentum, and the physical laws and physical constants that govern them....
 above the terrestrial sphere
Sublunary sphere

The sublunary sphere is a concept derived from Greek astronomy. It is the region of the cosmos from the Earth to the Moon, consisting of the four classical elements: Earth , Water , Air , and Fire ....
.

Mythological origins


The word (aither) in Homeric Greek
Homeric Greek

Homeric Greek is the form of Ancient Greek that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. It is an archaic version of Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects, such as Aeolic Greek....
 means "pure, fresh air" or "clear sky", imagined in Greek mythology
Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
 to be the pure essence where the gods lived and which they breathed, analogous to the air
AIR

Air is the part of Earth's atmosphere that humans breath and as such Air .Air may also refer to:...
 breathed by mortals (also personified as a deity, Aether
Aether (mythology)

Aether , in Greek mythology, is one of the Protogenoi, the first-born elemental gods. He is the personification of the "upper sky," space, and heaven, and the elemental god of the "Bright, Glowing, Upper Air." He is the pure upper air that the gods breathe, as opposed to normal air , the gloomy lower air of the Earth, which mortals breathe....
, the son of Erebus
Erebus

In Greek mythology, Erebus or Erebos or Erebes was the son of a primordial god, Chaos , and represented the personification of darkness and shadow, which filled in all the corners and crannies of the world....
 and Nyx). It corresponds to the concept of akasha
Akasha

Akasha is the Sanskrit word meaning "Aether " in both its aether and aether senses....
 in Hindu philosophy and is linked to Brihaspati
Brihaspati

Brihaspati is the name of a Vedic deity, personification of piety and religion, the chief offerer of prayers and sacrifices, represented as the Purohita of the gods with whom he intercedes on behalf of humankind....
 (or the planet Jupiter) and the center direction of the compass. It is related to "to incinerate", also intransitive "to burn, to shine" (related is the name Aithiopes (Ethiopia
Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
ns)), meaning "people with a burnt (black) visage". See also Empyrean
Empyrean

Empyrean, from the Medieval Latin empyreus, an adaptation of the Ancient Greek, "in or on the fire ", properly Empyrean Heaven, is the place in the heavenly sphere, which in ancient cosmology was supposed to be occupied by the element of fire ....
.

Fifth element

Plato's Timaeus posits the existence of a fifth element (corresponding to the fifth remaining Platonic solid
Platonic solid

In geometry, a Platonic solid is a convex set polyhedron that is regular polyhedron, in the sense of a regular polygon. Specifically, the faces of a Platonic solid are congruence regular polygons, with the same number of faces meeting at each vertex....
, the dodecahedron
Dodecahedron

A dodecahedron is any polyhedron with twelve faces, but usually a regular dodecahedron is meant: a Platonic solid composed of twelve regular pentagonal faces, with three meeting at each vertex....
) called quintessence, of which the cosmos and all celestial bodies are made.

Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
 included aether in the system of the classical element
Classical element

Many ancient philosophy used a set of archetype classical elements to explain patterns in nature. In this context, the word element refers to a chemical substance that is either a chemical compound or a mixture of chemical compounds , rather than a chemical element of modern physical science....
s of Ionic philosophy
Greek philosophy

Greek philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry. Many philosophers today concede that Greek philosophy has shaped the entire Western thought since its inception....
 as the "fifth element" (the quintessence
Quintessence

Quintessence, literally fifth essence , can refer to:* Aether , the fifth classical element after earth, fire, water, and air* Quintessence , a hypothetical form of dark energy; postulated to explain the accelerating universe...
), on the principle that the four terrestrial elements were subject to change and moved naturally in straight lines while no change had been observed in the celestial regions and the heavenly bodies moved in circles. In Aristotle's system aether had no qualities (was neither hot, cold, wet, or dry), was incapable of change (with the exception of change of place), and by its nature moved in circles. Medieval scholastic philosophers granted aether changes of density, in which the bodies of the planets were considered to be denser than the medium which filled the rest of the universe. Robert Fludd
Robert Fludd

Robert Fludd, also known as Robertus de Fluctibus was a prominent England Paracelsus physician, astrologer, and mysticism. He was not a member of the Rosicrucians, as often alleged, but he defended their thoughts in the Apologia Compendiaria of 1616....
 stated that the aether was of the character that it was "subtler than light". Fludd cites the 3rd century view of Plotinus
Plotinus

Plotinus was a major Philosophy of the ancient world who is widely considered the founder of Neoplatonism . Much of our biographical information about him comes from Porphyry 's preface to his edition of Plotinus' Enneads....
, concerning the aether as penetrative and non-material.

Legacy


The concept of the aether impacted science long after scientists had rejected the ancient theory of the five elements. Prior to fully modern theories of electromagnetism, many scientists applied the term "aether" to the pervasive medium through which they thought light must propagate. The modern understanding of electromagnetism
Electromagnetism

Electromagnetism is the physics of the electromagnetic field, a field which exerts a force on Elementary particles with the property of electric charge and which is reciprocally affected by the presence and motion of such particles....
, including Einstein's particle theory of light
Light

Light, or visible light, is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is Visible spectrum to the human eye , or up to 380?750 nm. In the broader field of physics, light is sometimes used to refer to electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths, whether visible or not....
 and various scientific experiments of general relativity
General relativity

General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the Geometry Theoretical physics of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916....
, has removed the need for a substance like aether to fill the otherwise empty parts of the universe. Newton's and Maxwell's aether model (the latter being a "classic static aether") were both developed from this classical element. However, the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment
Michelson-Morley experiment

The Michelson?Morley experiment, one of the most important and famous experiments in the history of physics, was performed in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University....
 in 1887 led to the decline of the aether model. Albert Einstein, in an interpretation he offered for his theory of special relativity, dismissed it, as per Occam's razor
Occam's razor

Occam's razor, also Ockham's razor, is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar, William of Ockham....
. He later reinstated a logical need for an aether in a commentary on his theory of general relativity ("according to the general theory of relativity space without ether is unthinkable").