Instants in physics - point mechanics and general relativity
History and Philosophy of Physics
2015-06-02 v1
Abstract
Theories in physics usually do not address ``the present''or ``the now''. However, they usually have a precise notion of an ``instant'' (or state). I review how this notion appears in relational point mechanics and how it suffices to determine durations - a fact that is often ignored in modern presentations of analytical dynamics. An analogous discussion is attempted for General Relativity. Finally I critically remark on the difference between relationalism in point mechanics and field theory and the problematic foundational dependencies between fields and spacetime.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1306.0338,
title = {Instants in physics - point mechanics and general relativity},
author = {Domenico Giulini},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1306.0338},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
18 pages, 3 figures