Ether and theory of elasticity in Beltrami's work (Q685239)

To a mathematician, E. Beltrami was mostly known for his work in non- Euclidean geometries. The author here discusses Beltrami's work in mathematical physics, where he tried to extend mechanics, potential theory and the theory of elasticity to non-Euclidean spaces. His geometrical works are highly utilized in his work on physics on Riemannian manifolds with constant curvature. They stem from an attitude of a natural philosopher trying to explain physical forces such as those described by Maxwell's equations, through the use of an ether filling the Universe. Beltrami showed that the etherial medium conjectured by Maxwell did not exist; his proof was for the Euclidean space. Using Beltrami's work in the theory of elasticity in non-Euclidean spaces, Padova did not get any positive results in trying to give a mechanical explanation of Maxwell's equations. The consequence was that no etherial fluid which is elastic, homogeneous, and isotropic, could transmit electromagnetic forces in any space, be it flat or curved. It is amazing that this was not sufficient for the scientists of that period to shed the idea of ether; the exlusion of that hypothesis waited until Einstein's theory of relativity. The results of Beltrami, Cesàro, Somigliana and Padova in mathematical physics are still of some interest in mathematics.