The Principle of Equivalence |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Life Science & Biotechnology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China;2. School of Software Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China;1. University of Maine at Augusta, 46 University Drive, Bangor, ME 04330, United States of America;2. Husson University, 228 Beardsley Meeting House, 1 College Circle, Bangor, ME 04401, United States of America;3. Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, United Kingdom |
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| Abstract: | We start from John Norton's analysis (1985) of the reach of Einstein's version of the principle of equivalence which is not a local principle but an extension of the relativity principle to reference frames in constant acceleration on the background of Minkowski spacetime. We examine how such a point of view implies a profound, and not generally recognised, reconsideration of the concepts of inertial system and field in physics. We then reevaluate the role that the infinitesimal principle, if adequately formulated, can legitimately be claimed to play in general relativity. We show that what we call the ‘punctual equivalence principle’ has significant physical content and that it permits the derivation of the geodesic law. |
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