"To begin with the difference between my conception and Newton's law of gravitation: Please imagine the earth removed, and in its place suspended a box as big as a room or a whole house and inside a man naturally floating in the centre, there being no for force whatever pulling him. Imagine, further, this box being, by a rope or other contrivance, suddenly jerked to one side, which is scientifically termed 'difform motion,' as opposed to 'uniform motion.' The person would then naturally reach bottom on the opposite side. The result would consequently be the same as if he obeyed Newton's law of gravitation, while, in fact, there is no gravitation exerted whatever, which proves that difform motion will in every case produce the same effects as gravitation. I have applied this new idea to every kind of difform motion and have thus developed mathematical formulas which I am convinced give more precise results than those based on Newton's theory. Newton's formulas, however, are such close approximations that it was difficult to find by observation any obvious disagreement with experience."
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Original Language: English
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Albert Einstein, "Einstein Expounds His New Theory," New York Times (Dec. 3, 1919) p. 19.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/General_relativity
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General relativity
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