Einstein's standard and battle-tested geometric theory of gravity--spacetime tells mass how to move and mass tells spacetime how to curve--is expounded in this book by Ignazio Ciufolini and John Wheeler. They give special attention to the theory's observational checks and to two of its consequences: the predicted existence of gravitomagnetism and the origin of inertia (local inertial frames) in Einstein's general relativity: inertia "here" arises from mass "there."

The authors explain the modern understanding of the link between gravitation and inertia in Einstein's theory, from the origin of inertia in some cosmological models of the universe, to the interpretation of the initial value formulation of Einstein's standard geometrodynamics; and from the devices and the methods used to determine the local inertial frames of reference, to the experiments used to detect and measure the "dragging of inertial frames of reference." In this book, Ciufolini and Wheeler emphasize present, past, and proposed tests of gravitational interaction, metric theories, and general relativity. They describe the numerous confirmations of the foundations of geometrodynamics and some proposed experiments, including space missions, to test some of its fundamental predictions--in particular gravitomagnetic field or "dragging of inertial frames" and gravitational waves.

Here a physicist and a professor of literature guide general readers through the ideas that revolutionized our conception of the physical universe.

Somewhere near the heart of existence, shimmers the ethereal beauty of the mystery of Time. Though seemingly familiar to us all, time harbours secrets that penetrate the very deepest levels of reality, and though we feel certain in our conviction that we're swept forth upon the crest of its never-ending flow, with Einstein's discovery of relativity came what is perhaps the most stunning realisation in the entire history of scientific thought - the wondrously breathtaking revelation that in reality, there's actually no such thing as the passage of time... How can this extraordinary truth be reconciled with the reality we so surely suppose to experience? What does it mean for the very human concerns of life and death, free will, identity, and self? What should it mean for our philosophy? And how should it inform our world view? The search for answers leads through the fantastical realm of quantum physics, and the strange parallel worlds it describes, as we discover that the answers which such questions provoke, are perhaps even more profound than the questions themselves. Buried deep within the riddle of time, lies the staggering beauty of the world. As we peel back the layers to try and sneak a glimpse into eternity, we find a light shining not only upon the nature of reality, but on the nature of ourselves...

Motion is always relative to some thing. Is this thing a concrete body like the earth, is it an abstract space, or is it an imagined frame? Do the laws of physics depend on the choice of reference? It there a choice for which the laws are simplest? Is this choice unique? Is there a physical cause for the choice made? These questions traverse the history of modern physics from Galileo to Einstein. The answers involved Galilean relativity, Newton's absolute space, the purely relational concepts of Descartes, Leibniz, and Mach, and many forgotten uses of relativity principles in mechanics, optics, and electrodynamics - until the relativity theories of Poincare, Einstein, Minkowksi, and Laue radically redefined space and time to satisfy universal kinds of relativity. Accordingly, this book retraces the emergence of relativity principles in early modern mechanics, documents their constructive use in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century mechanics, optics, and electrodynamics, and gives a well-rooted account of the genesis of special and general relativity in the early twentieth century. As an exercise in long-term history, it demonstrates the connectivity of issues and approaches across several centuries, despite enormous changes in context and culture. As an account of the genesis of relativity theories, it brings unprecedented clarity and fullness by broadening the spectrum of resources on which the principal actors drew.

Dieser Buchtitel ist Teil des Digitalisierungsprojekts Springer Book Archives mit Publikationen, die seit den Anfangen des Verlags von 1842 erschienen sind. Der Verlag stellt mit diesem Archiv Quellen fur die historische wie auch die disziplingeschichtliche Forschung zur Verfugung, die jeweils im historischen Kontext betrachtet werden mussen. Dieser Titel erschien in der Zeit vor 1945 und wird daher in seiner zeittypischen politisch-ideologischen Ausrichtung vom Verlag nicht beworben.