Related papers: On thought experiments: Mach and Einstein (Part I)
In these lectures I propose to push Einstein's principle of coordinate independence to the extreme in order to restrict the possible form of fundamental equations of motion in physics. I start from nearly tautological system theoretic…
In his monumental discoveries, the driving force for Einstein was, I believe, consistency of concept and principle rather than conflict with experiment. In this spirit, I would like to look at the journey from the classical to the…
The nature of gravity is fundamental to understand the scaffolding of the Universe and its evolution. Einstein's general theory of relativity has been scrutinized for over ninety five years and shown to describe accurately all phenomena…
Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity was proposed a little over a hundred years back. It remained a bedrock of twentieth century physics right up to Quantum Field Theory. However, the failure over several decades to provide a unified…
The analysis of the Doppler effect for photons in rotating systems, studied using the M\"ossbauer effect, confirms the general conclusions of a previous paper dedicated to experiments with photons emitted/absorbed by atoms/nuclei in…
Based on the principle of relativity and the postulate on universal invariant constants ($c,l$) as well as Einstein's isotropy conditions, three kinds of special relativity form a triple with a common Lorentz group as isotropy group under…
The author reflects on the significance of Einstein's brain and the search for what makes it distinct.
A mathematical complication due to an unnecessary formal assumption concerning the variational principle of general relativity theory, which apparently bothered Einstein and Hilbert, is shown and cleared up. Some historical confusion seems…
In the first part of this paper I review some of the difficulties that seem to obstruct generally valid definitions of "general covariance" and/or "background independence" The second and more historical part deals with a rather strange…
A century ago, Einstein formulated his elegant and elaborate theory of General Relativity, which has so far withstood a multitude of empirical tests with remarkable success. Notwithstanding the triumphs of Einstein's theory, the tenacious…
The conceptual evolution of principle of relativity in the theory of special relativity is discussed in detail. It is intimately related to a series of difficulties in quantum mechanics,relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum field…
The principle of common cause is discussed as a possible fundamental principle of physics. Some revisions of Reichenbach's formulation of the principle are given, which lead to a version given by Bell. Various similar forms are compared and…
The current status of Mach's principle is discussed within the context of general relativity. The inertial properties of a particle are determined by its mass and spin, since these characterize the irreducible unitary representations of the…
The Equivalence Principle (EP) is not one of the ``universal'' principles of physics (like the Action Principle). It is a heuristic hypothesis which was introduced by Einstein in 1907, and used by him to construct his theory of General…
Einstein's happiest thought was his leap from the observation that a falling person feels no gravity to the realization that gravity might be equivalent to acceleration. It affects all bodies in the same way because it is a property of…
In his Autobiographical Notes, Einstein mentioned that on his road to the final theory of general relativity it was a major difficulty to accustom himself to the idea that coordinates need not possess an immediate physical meaning in terms…
We deduce from Poincare's ellipsoidal wavefronts a relativistic Doppler-Fizeau formula that is not the same as 1905 Einstein's one. Longitudinally, Einstein's formula and Poincare's formula are the same. The question of an experimental test…
The analytic hyperbolic geometric viewpoint of Einstein's special theory of relativity is presented.
Einstein's argument on the relativity of simultaneity itself is the first result of the special theory of relativity. The nature of this result is explored, and implications of this result for the structure and functioning of the physical…
The concept of fact has a history. Over the past centuries, physicists have appropriated it in various ways. In this article, we compare Ernst Mach and Albert Einstein's interpretations of the concept. Mach, like most nineteenth-century…