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    Einstein failed to successfully incorporate Mach's Princi... — Carmelics
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    Einstein failed to successfully incorporate Mach's Principle into his general theory of relativity.

    Skepticism
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Mach's Principle requires that inertial frames be fully determined by the global distribution of matter, not merely influenced by it.
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    • 2.Einstein's field equations permit gravitational waves and spacetime curvature to propagate in the absence of local matter sources.
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    • 3.A theory that allows inertial structure to be partially independent of matter distribution has failed to fully incorporate Mach's Principle.
      ?

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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Einstein himself acknowledged in his 1918 correspondence with de Sitter that his equations failed to satisfy Mach's Principle as he had intended.
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    • 2.The cosmological constant Einstein introduced was partly motivated by blocking the de Sitter solution, revealing his own recognition of this failure.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Einstein hoped that Mach's Principle would be incorporated into his field equations, which would require that spacetime cannot exist without matter.
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    • 2.De Sitter's solution describes a valid universe that is entirely empty of matter.
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    • 3.An empty universe satisfying Einstein's field equations is a direct counter-example to Mach's Principle being built into those equations.
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    SkepticismTruth & Knowledge

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    Related

    A theory that allows inertial structure to be partially independent of matter di...An empty universe satisfying Einstein's field equations is a direct counter-exam...De Sitter's solution describes a valid universe that is entirely empty of matter...Einstein himself acknowledged in his 1918 correspondence with de Sitter that his...
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    Einstein hoped that Mach's Principle would be incorporated into his field equati...Einstein's field equations permit gravitational waves and spacetime curvature to...Mach's Principle requires that inertial frames be fully determined by the global...

    Similar

    Mach's Principle was successfully incorporated into Einstein's general...89%Einstein's attempt to incorporate Mach's Principle (version 2) into ge...83%The general theory of relativity does not permit the generalization an...80%The Helmholtz-Lie treatment of the problem of space lost its relevance...79%

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    However, Einstein was mistaken. In 1917, the Dutch astronomer Willem de Sitter published another solution to Einstein’s field equations containing the cosmological constant. De Sitter’s solution showed that Einstein’s solution is not a unique solution of his field equations. In addition, since de Sitter’s universe is empty it provided a direct counter-example to Einstein’s hope that Mach’s Principle had been successfully incorporated into his theory.[80]
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    Details

    The cosmological constant Einstein introduced was partly motivated by blocking t...
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit