This question was prompted by another question about a paper by Woodward (not mine). IMO Mach's principle is very problematic (?wrong) thinking. Mach was obviously influenced by Leibniz. Empty space solutions in GR would result in a Minkowski metric and would suggest no inertia. Mach's principle seems incompatible with GR. Gravitational waves could also be a problem. I had thought that papers like one by Wolfgang Rindler had more or less marginalised the Mach Principle, but I see lots of Internet discussion of it. Is it correct? Wrong? Is there evidence? (frame dragging experiments)?
Let's use this definition from ScienceWorld.Wolfram.com:
In his book The Science of Mechanics (1893), Ernst Mach put forth the idea that it did not make sense to speak of the acceleration of a mass relative to absolute space. Rather, one would do better to speak of acceleration relative to the distant stars. What this implies is that the inertia of a body here is influenced by matter far distant.
No comments:
Post a Comment