Why the Ether

以太的地位

If you were a 19th century physicist, what was the most important and useful reason to use the concept of ether?

如果你是十九世纪的物理学家，使用以太概念最重要和最有用的理由是什么？

Light was conceived to be a wave, so it had to be a wave in something, and the ether was that medium. 

光被认为是一个波，所以它必须是某物中的波，而以太就是那个媒介。

Why was the study of the ether at the forefront of physics at the turn of the century?

为什么在世纪之交，研究以太处于物理学的最前沿？

Even though the ether was such an important theoretical concept, there were no definitive experimental results that determined its physical properties. Because of this, physicists could imagine various models or hypotheses about the nature of the ether.

虽然以太是一个重要的理论概念，但并没有确定其物理性质的最终实验结果。正因为如此，物理学家可以想象各种关于以太性质的模型或假设。