Related papers: On thought experiments: Mach and Einstein (Part I)
We present a historical review of Einstein's 1917 paper 'Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity' to mark the centenary of a key work that set the foundations of modern cosmology. We find that the paper followed as a…
One century after its formulation, Einstein's general relativity has made remarkable predictions and turned out to be compatible with all experimental tests. Most of these tests probe the theory in the weak-field regime, and there are…
We explore the possibility to give a classical explanation to the specifics and physical sense of de Broglie matter waves when studying the microparticle as an object of non zero size, from the point of view of the special theory of…
It is universally believed that with his 1905 paper "Does the inertia of a body depend on its energy content?" Einstein first demonstrated the equivalence of mass and energy by making use of his special theory of relativity. In the final…
We discuss some fundamental issues underlying gravitational physics and point out some of the main shortcomings of Einstein's General Relativity. In particular, after taking into account the role of the two main objects of relativistic…
This paper examines Schwarzschild's key contributions to general relativity through his two papers. It focuses on his method for developing exterior and interior solutions. The study emphasizes Schwarzschild's ingenious methods and the…
The renaissance of General Relativity witnessed considerable progress regarding both understanding and justifying Einstein's equations. Both general relativists and historians of the subject tend to share a view, General Relativity…
The theory of relativity showed that several Newtonian ideas about spacetime are imperfect. We present here some relativistic concepts related to these ideas: simultaneity of events and synchronization of clocks (both along a line in the…
While Special and General Relativity are well known by a very large number of people, Einstein's religious convinctions are almost ignored. The paper focuses on what was his view about immortality. Einstein believed in Spinoza's view of God…
Einstein was in many ways like a detective on a mystery trail, though in his case he was on the trail of nature's mysteries and not some murder mystery! And like all good detectives he had a style. It consisted of taking facts that he knew…
Einstein's reply to Weyl about the importance in General Relativity of the identity of the sources of spectral lines is well know. We show that, already in Special Relavitity, Einstein's definition of the unit of time from the frequency of…
Taking a hint from Dirac's large number hypothesis, we note the existence of cosmologically combined conservation laws that work to cosmologically long time. We thus modify Einstein's theory of general relativity with fixed gravitation…
An outstanding problem posed by Einstein's general theory of relativity to the quantum theory of point particle fields is the fate of a massive point particle; for, in the classical solutions of Einstein's theory, such a system should be a…
Long before the general theory of relativity was finally formulated in 1916, arguments based entirely on Einstein's equivalence principle predicted the well known phenomenon of the gravitational red shift. Precisely the same arguments are…
Principles in the form of heuristic guidelines or generally accepted dogma play an important role in the development of physical theories. In particular, philosophical considerations and principles figure prominently in the work of Albert…
Starting from the origin of Einstein general relativity (GR) the request of Mach on the theory's structure has been the core of the foundational debate. That problem is strictly connected with the nature of the mass-energy equivalence. It…
Transformation equations for the kinetic energy of the same bullet in Galileo's and Einstein's special relativity are derived. The special relativity result is extended to the case of a photon.
In this paper we consider a thought experiment involving the effect of gravitation on an ideal scale containing a photon. If the tidal forces inherent to a gravitational field are neglected, then one is led to scenario which seems to bring…
In order to respect the Principle of Relativity, the analysis of the behavior of the longitudinal light clock reveals the necessity to extend the Doppler effect also to space and time. As a consequence, the bodies in inertial motion must…
Before developing his 1915 General Theory of Relativity, Einstein held the "Entwurf" theory. Tullio Levi-Civita from Padua, one of the founders of tensor calculus, objected to a major problematic element in this theory, which reflected its…