Waves
Robert Hooke speculated in 1671 that gravitation is the result of all bodies emitting waves in all directions through the aether. Other bodies, which interchange with these waves, move in the direction of the source of the waves. Hooke saw an analogy to the fact that small objects on a disturbed surface of water move to the center of the disturbance.
A similar theory was worked out mathematically by James Challis from 1859 to 1876. He calculated that the case of attraction occurs if the wavelength is large in comparison with the distance between the gravitating bodies. If the wavelength is small, the bodies repel each other. By a combination of these effects, he also tried to explain all other forces.
Criticism: Maxwell objected that this theory requires a steady production of waves, which must be accompanied by an infinite consumption of energy. Challis himself admitted, that he hadn't reached a definite result due to the complexity of the processes.
Read more about this topic: Mechanical Explanations Of Gravitation
Famous quotes containing the word waves:
“Achilles had strapped the wind
About his ankles,
He brushed rocks
The waves had flung.
He ran in armour.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!”
—Katharine Lee Bates (1859–1929)
“During our twenties...we act toward the new adulthood the way sociologists tell us new waves of immigrants acted on becoming Americans: we adopt the host culture’s values in an exaggerated and rigid fashion until we can rethink them and make them our own. Our idea of what adults are and what we’re supposed to be is composed of outdated childhood concepts brought forward.”
—Roger Gould (20th century)