Many fundamental scientific theories are based on the concept of ?fields' that facilitate the transmission of forces, energy, waveforms, magnetism, electric charge and the like. Such fields exist as non-material mediums with certain mathematical properties but no physical reality or fixed positions in space.
Numerous attempts have been made to detect a physical existence of such a medium, in particular, for the ?electromagnetic field' but all have failed. It was argued that if a physical medium existed then the solar system as a whole must necessarily be either stationary or moving relative to the medium. In either case, because the Earth moves relative to the sun, there must be times when the Earth moves relative to such a medium. This drift (formerly referred to as ether-drift) should be measurable using light interference methods and thereby establish the existence of a medium. The best of many experiments to measure such drift was carried out in 1887 by Michelson & Morley. Exhaustive tests resulted in the failure to detect any drift. Many experiments since have also confirmed these negative results. The conclusion drawn from these experiments by the scientific establishment has resulted in a belief that therefore no physical medium exists.
