"... the theory of relativity makes it appear probable that Mach was on the right road in his thought that inertia depends upon a mutual action of matter. For we shall show in the following that, according to our equations, inert masses do act upon each other in the sense of the relativity of inertia, even if only very feebly. What is to be expected along the line of Mach's thought? 1. The inertia of a body must increase when ponderable masses are piled up in the neighborhood. 2. A body must experience an accelerating force when neighbouring masses are accelerated, and, in fact, the force must be in the same direction as that acceleration. 3. A rotating hollow body must generate inside itself a "Coriolis field," which deflects moving bodies in the sense of the rotation, and a radial centrifugal field as well. We shall now show that these three effects, which are to be expected in accordance with Mach's ideas, are actually present according to our theory, although their magnitude is so small that confirmation of them by laboratory experiments is not to be thought of."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Albert Einstein, (1st edition 1922, based upon Einstein's Stafford Little Lectures, delivered in May 1921 at Princeton University)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mach's_principle
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Mach's principle
4 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Mach's principle →
Related Quotes
"The so-called Mach's Principle is surely one of the most elusive concepts in physics. On one hand, Machian aspects ha…"
"Mach's profound critique of the foundations of Newtonian mechanics played a key role in Einstein's development of . M…"
"Most terrestrial motions are of such brief duration and extent, that it is wholly unnecessary to take into account th…"
"That the pion-nucleon (πN) coupling constant is fundamental in our understanding of the Cosmos has been adequately em…"
"... Roughly speaking, in renormalizable theories no coupling constants can have the dimensions of negative powers of …"
"The octonions are much stranger. Not only are they noncommutative, they are also break another familiar law of arithm…"
"Despite its counter-culture status, the octonions have long drawn the curiosity of generations of physicists. The alg…"
"The real numbers are the dependable breadwinner of the family, the complete ordered field we all rely on. The complex…"
"Besides their possible role in physics, the octonions are important because they tie together some algebraic structur…"
"It is possible to form an analogous theory with seven imaginary roots of (-1)."