With his famous bucket experiment, Newton sought to demonstrate the existence of absolute space and started a great debate on the foundations of physics that has continued until this very day.
The Austrian physicist Ernst Mach wanted to reformulate Newtonian mechanics so that its concepts were closer to direct experience.
In developing his general theory of relativity, Einstein was strongly influenced by Mach's ideas. Initially, Einstein believed that his new theory was a perfect implementation of the principle but later changed his mind and rejected the principle. This led to decades of controversy.
This book presents a unique survey of this important subject by nearly all leading specialists in the field. The theoretical, experimental, historical, and philosophical aspects are all covered, as well as the issue of time, which is a central problem in modern studies of quantum gravity.

Klappentext

This volume is a collection of scholarly articles on the Mach Principle, the impact that this theory has had since the end of the 19th century, and its role in helping Einstein formulate the doctrine of general relativity. 20th-century physics is concerned with the concepts of time, space, motion, inertia and gravity. The documentation on all of these makes this book a reference for those who are interested in the history of science and the theory of general relativity