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    The boundary condition 'flat at infinity' is incompatible... — Carmelics
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    The boundary condition 'flat at infinity' is incompatible with Mach's Principle

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    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

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    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Einstein's 1917 introduction of the cosmological constant was explicitly motivated by replacing 'flat at infinity' to satisfy Machian constraints.
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    • 2.A spacetime that is flat at infinity permits solutions where test particles in an otherwise empty universe possess inertia, violating Mach's demand that inertia vanish without surrounding matter.
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    • 3.The Thirring-Lense effect demonstrates that local inertial frames are dragged by rotating mass distributions, confirming that inertia has material origins incompatible with a boundary frame tied to empty infinity.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Barbour and Bertotti's Machian relational mechanics shows that a consistent Machian dynamics requires no preferred asymptotic structure, making any fixed boundary condition non-Machian by construction.
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    • 2.The 'flat at infinity' condition introduces an absolute element in the sense of Kretschner and Anderson—a non-dynamical background structure that resists Mach's reduction of geometry to matter relations.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.The boundary condition 'flat at infinity' entails a global inertial frame tied to empty flat space at infinity
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    • 2.A global inertial frame tied to empty flat space at infinity is unrelated to the mass-energy content of space
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    • 3.Mach's Principle requires that only mass-energy can influence inertia
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    Related

    A global inertial frame tied to empty flat space at infinity is unrelated to the...A spacetime that is flat at infinity permits solutions where test particles in a...Barbour and Bertotti's Machian relational mechanics shows that a consistent Mach...Einstein's 1917 introduction of the cosmological constant was explicitly motivat...
    +4 moreShow less
    Mach's Principle requires that only mass-energy can influence inertiaThe 'flat at infinity' condition introduces an absolute element in the sense of ...The Thirring-Lense effect demonstrates that local inertial frames are dragged by...The boundary condition 'flat at infinity' entails a global inertial frame tied t...

    Similar

    The boundary condition 'flat at infinity' entails a global inertial fr...85%It is impossible to choose boundary conditions for infinite space cont...74%ZFC set theory cannot serve as a sufficient basis for the mathematics ...72%Aristotle's geometric arguments against the existence of an infinite d...71%

    Source

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    The cosmological principle continuous to play an important role in cosmological modelling to this day. However, Einstein’s second assumption that the universe is static was in conflict with his field equations, which permitted models of the universe that were homogeneous and isotropic, but not static. In this regard, Einstein’s difficulties were essentially the same that Newton had faced: A static Newtonian model involving an infinite container with an infinite number of stars was unstable
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    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit