Abstract

The belief persists in some quarters that the concept of an ether as a medium for electromagnetic waves has been completely discredited. Although it is true that the mathematics of electrodynamics and of Einstein's special relativity operate without reference to details of a transmission medium, in neither case is the ether concept contradicted; it is simply not addressed. An examination of the process by which energy and momentum are transferred from one charged body to another reveals that the electric field must be the source of the energy and momentum which are transferred. The charged bodies play a role of modulating a pre-existing field to produce the observed forces. The electric field exists throughout all space, constituting what was once called an all-pervasive ether. This concept explains how charged bodies influence the electric field to exert forces of attraction and replulsion and it explains the Michelson-Morley null results.