In antiquity and the Middle Ages they believed that ether is a mysterious element, which fills the universe over the earth's sphere. The concept of this mysterious element has been used to describe a number of natural phenomena as light and its propagation, or gravity.

Ether - one of the basic elements of the universe

In the past, she was believed to be ether as one of the basic elements of the universe. At the end of the nineteenth century, scientists claimed that ether penetrated the entire space, allowing the light to move in a vacuum. Unfortunately, later experiments did not prove this.

In ancient Greek mythology it was stated that ether is the pure essence that filled the space, in which the gods lived and breathed, like the air that the mortals breathe.

Plato

Plato also mentions the ether in his work. In the work of Timaeus, in which Plato mentions the existence of Atlantis, the Greek philosopher writes of air and explains that "the most transparent element is called ether (αίθερ)." This term appears both in Aristotelian physics and in the electromagnetic theory of the late nineteenth century.

Aristotle

For Aristotle (384-322 BC), the ether was an element of the so-called suprallian world, while the sublunar world consists of four known elements: earth, water, air, and fire. Ether was, by contrast, a finer and lighter element, more perfect than the other four. His natural motion should be circular, while the natural movement of the remaining four is straightforward (Aristotle's physics is qualitative, not quantitative).

Aristoteles (© CC BY-SA 2.5)

Indie

The element is also mentioned in ancient Hindu philosophy. In India, the ether is known as akasha. The Sankhya cosmology speaks of the pañcha mahā bhūta (five main elements), eight times finer than the previous: Earth (bhumi), water (apu), fire (agni), air (vāyu), ether (ākāśa). Samkhya or Sankhya is one of the six Asian Hindu schools, which are mostly Hindu yoga schools.

Nikola Tesla

He also mentioned the ether Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest thinkers who ever lived on Earth: "All the elements come from the primary substance, the luminous ether."

Widespread was in China and India, where Buddhism and Hinduism were the foundation.

Medieval

During the Middle Ages, the ether was called the fifth element, or qüinta essentia, precisely because it is the fifth material element described by Aristotle. This is the term quintessence, which is used in contemporary cosmology to designate dark energy.

Isaac Newton

Ether was also closely associated with gravity. Isaac Newton published this term in one of his first theories of gravitation (Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica - Principia), when he based a whole description of planetary motion on it in the theoretical law of dynamic interactions. In "Newton's Perspectives on Ether and Gravity," Newton gave up attempts to quantify this particular form of interaction between distant bodies by including the effect of propagation through the influencing medium, and called this medium ether.

In addition, Newton describes ether as a medium that "flows" constantly down to the surface of the Earth and is partially absorbed and partially dispersed. The combination of the "circulation" of the ether with the gravitational force was to help explain the effect of gravity in a non-mechanical way.