Aether 'Density'

Here's a little pure speculation for you. One can ask, what is the relative contribution of each primary electric field to the medium at a given location? One possibility is that the 'weighting factor' is proportional to the electric field strength at a given location. Since the electric field strength falls off as the inverse square of the distance from the source particle, one would expect pretty big variations in the effective state of 'rest' of the medium and the propagation speed of the medium. In other words, stars (and planets) would tend to carry their own state of rest with them. For example, the dominating medium around the earth would more or less move with the earth, and we might expect to see significant variations in the characteristic speed (speed of light) with distance from the earth.

On the other hand, if there was no weighting factor at all, in others words if the contribution of each field element was completely independent of field strength, then one might expect the characteristic speed to be totally constant and the state of rest to be solely determined by the 'average' state of motion of all particles in the universe.

Now, if the weighting factor were dependent on the inverse distance from the source particle (like the electric potential), then one would expect an intermediate result. For example, the characteristic speed would be nearly constant, varying just a tiny bit near massive objects. And friends, this is precisely what we see. Likewise, the local effective state of rest of the medium would almost solely determined by the average state of motion of all particles in the universe.

Ernst Mach dimly perceived that something like this could be the case. In a sense, local physical laws are determined by the large-scale structure of the universe.

What About Relativity?

Let's see if I can roughly paraphrase it. The correct laws (equations) of physics ought to be independent of the frame of reference. That, more or less, is the principle of relativity. It appears that the authors of that statement never stopped to talk to the ordinary guys who deal with elastic waves in solids, acoustic waves in fluids, et cetera. Anybody knows that the equations are only going to be simple in the reference frame stationary with respect to the medium of propagation. So you see, we've gone down a bad road. Some smart guys, for example, got completely fooled by the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment.

You know, I'm definitely not the 'smartest guy in the room', and I've been wrong about lots of things. But I can say these things with honest conviction. I'm not actually a threat to anybody. I'm not in academia. My work is not published in the prestigious journals. I have nothing to lose by being perfectly honest about how I see it. And (scary thought) I just possibly might be right.

Anyway, my advice: don't try to make electromagnetic radiation special. Electromagnetic radiation is a disturbance propagating in a medium. The real task is in trying to understand that medium and exactly how it works. Progress will not be made until we stand toe-to-toe with Faraday and Maxwell and think more deeply about the problem than they did.

One more thing: Maxwell's Negative Energy Difficulty wherein a vector theory of gravity is supposedly not possible? If (as is most likely) there is no separate force of gravity (i.e., gravity is a purely electromagnetic phenomenon), then Maxwell's arguments are without merit. I dare to claim that this, along with the invalidity of the principle of relativity, completely undercuts the General Theory of Relativity, not to mention the special Theory of Relativity.

No shame; we've all gone down bad roads. Now is a good time to exercise a little humility, admit that it was all wrong, and start over again.