Superphysics Superphysics
Chapter 11b

The Balance Between the Aethers

by Rene Descartes Icon
4 minutes  • 662 words
Table of contents

In the same way, the stone R is so opposed to the quantity (exactly equal in size) of air-aether above it.

The stone would occupy the place of that air-aether if R moved farther away from center T.

  • That air-aether would necessarily have to descend to the extent that the stone rose.

That stone would then be opposed to an equal quantity of air-aether below it.

  • That air-aether would have to rise back the closer it gets to the center T.
  • This would then force the stone to descend.

The stone has no force to rise above the air-aether in the planetary gravitational territory because:

  • The stone has much more earth-aether than an equally sized air-aether has earth-aether.
    • To counterbalance this, the stone has less air-aether
  • The stone’s earth-aether is less agitated by the air-aether around it.

Instead, the air-aether around the stone has the force to make the stone fall by moving it towards the center T.

Thus, the small amount of air-aether in the stone is light compared to the earth-aether in the stone.

  • But when compared to pure air-aether, it is heavy

  • Consequently, it contains much less of the air-aether.

The World

Thus, each part of terrestrial bodies is pressed toward T.

Each body is pushed differently by the surrounding air-aether according to the quantity of the earth-aether that it has.

  • This push depends on the amount of air-aether beneath an earth-aether that can take its place as the earth-aether goes down.

“Homogeneous” bodies are those that act as one. Examples are physical air and water.

This is why:

  • the gravitational force of the air-aether is not noticably more in the deepest valleys than in the highest mountains.
  • a man in very deep water does not feel it weigh on his back any more than if he were swimming right on top.[52]

Why Don’t We Spin Off the Earth?

Why doesn’t the stone fall to the east 6 or west 7?

This is because all the terrestrial parts in the circle 5678 is being pressed toward T by the air-aether as one mass.

The parts of the stellar air aether have very irregular and diverse shapes.

  • These must join together and compose only one mass, which is borne as a whole by the territory ABCD
  • This is why, while the whole territory ABCD turns, the air-aether at 6 always remains opposite to those that are at 2 and at F.
  • They only shift one way or the other due to physical winds or other forces.

The air-aether at ABCD rotates much faster than the Earth.

  • But its air-aether that are caught in the pores of terrestrial bodies move just as slow as those terrestrial bodies around the center T

The air-aether pushes the stone R to center T because the air-aether tends to move away from the center with more force than the stone.

  • Yet the air-aether cannot force the stone to back up toward the West or East because it moves vertically in a straight line.

This downward force of the air-aether on the stone R cannot make it fall towards the West or East. This is because it focuses all its effort to make the stone move towards T according to the earth-aether contained in the stone relative to the air-aether that it has.

The stone travels in the same speed whether towards the East or West because the stellar-air-aether around the stone applies its force both on the air-aether and earth-aether there [as a unit, regardless of lateral direction].

Many philosophers say that:

  • if the Earth rotates then things would fall not in a straight line
  • cannonballs fired towards the West should travel much farther than if pointed towards the East
  • we should always feel great winds in the air and hear great noises [in the East]

This is because they do not know that the rotation of the Earth is carried by its gravitational territory.

Such arguments do not affect the motions that I am describing here.

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