Equivalence principle before Einstein
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In an german interview some physicist were asked, what they would ask Einstein, if he was alive today. One of them wanted to know how Einstein came up with the idea of the equivalence principle, that inertial mass is the same as gravitational mass. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always believed that was known way before Einstein. And I have an experiment in mind where one famous guy standing on a church and letting two things fall with different mass to test if gravity acts on every object the same.
My question is, does somebody know the name of this famous person, who conducted the experiment? I can't remember it.
mass history equivalence-principle
edited 54 mins ago
Qmechanic♦
107k121991239
asked 1 hour ago
MaximMaxim
1375
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
In an german interview some physicist were asked, what they would ask Einstein, if he was alive today. One of them wanted to know how Einstein came up with the idea of the equivalence principle, that inertial mass is the same as gravitational mass. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always believed that was known way before Einstein. And I have an experiment in mind where one famous guy standing on a church and letting two things fall with different mass to test if gravity acts on every object the same.
My question is, does somebody know the name of this famous person, who conducted the experiment? I can't remember it.
mass history equivalence-principle
edited 54 mins ago
Qmechanic♦
107k121991239
asked 1 hour ago
MaximMaxim
1375
$endgroup$
2
$begingroup$
Galileo Galilei, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei
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– hyportnex
1 hour ago
1
$begingroup$
"And I have an experiment in mind where one famous guy standing on a church and letting two things fall with different mass to test if gravity acts on every object the same." I think you mean Galileo Galilei.
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– Gert
1 hour ago
2
$begingroup$
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's about the history of physics, not physics primarily.
$endgroup$
– Gert
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
This looks like it could be a better fit on SE.HistoryOfScienceAndMathematics.
$endgroup$
– Nat
1 hour ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
In an german interview some physicist were asked, what they would ask Einstein, if he was alive today. One of them wanted to know how Einstein came up with the idea of the equivalence principle, that inertial mass is the same as gravitational mass. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always believed that was known way before Einstein. And I have an experiment in mind where one famous guy standing on a church and letting two things fall with different mass to test if gravity acts on every object the same.
My question is, does somebody know the name of this famous person, who conducted the experiment? I can't remember it.
mass history equivalence-principle
edited 54 mins ago
Qmechanic♦
107k121991239
asked 1 hour ago
MaximMaxim
1375
$endgroup$
In an german interview some physicist were asked, what they would ask Einstein, if he was alive today. One of them wanted to know how Einstein came up with the idea of the equivalence principle, that inertial mass is the same as gravitational mass. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always believed that was known way before Einstein. And I have an experiment in mind where one famous guy standing on a church and letting two things fall with different mass to test if gravity acts on every object the same.
My question is, does somebody know the name of this famous person, who conducted the experiment? I can't remember it.
mass history equivalence-principle
mass history equivalence-principle
edited 54 mins ago
Qmechanic♦
107k121991239
asked 1 hour ago
MaximMaxim
1375
edited 54 mins ago
Qmechanic♦
107k121991239
asked 1 hour ago
MaximMaxim
1375
edited 54 mins ago
Qmechanic♦
107k121991239
edited 54 mins ago
Qmechanic♦
107k121991239
edited 54 mins ago
Qmechanic♦
107k121991239
107k121991239
asked 1 hour ago
MaximMaxim
1375
asked 1 hour ago
MaximMaxim
1375
asked 1 hour ago
MaximMaxim
1375
1375
2
$begingroup$
Galileo Galilei, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei
$endgroup$
– hyportnex
1 hour ago
1
$begingroup$
"And I have an experiment in mind where one famous guy standing on a church and letting two things fall with different mass to test if gravity acts on every object the same." I think you mean Galileo Galilei.
$endgroup$
– Gert
1 hour ago
2
$begingroup$
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's about the history of physics, not physics primarily.
$endgroup$
– Gert
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
This looks like it could be a better fit on SE.HistoryOfScienceAndMathematics.
$endgroup$
– Nat
1 hour ago
add a comment |
2
$begingroup$
Galileo Galilei, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei
$endgroup$
– hyportnex
1 hour ago
1
$begingroup$
"And I have an experiment in mind where one famous guy standing on a church and letting two things fall with different mass to test if gravity acts on every object the same." I think you mean Galileo Galilei.
$endgroup$
– Gert
1 hour ago
2
$begingroup$
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's about the history of physics, not physics primarily.
$endgroup$
– Gert
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
This looks like it could be a better fit on SE.HistoryOfScienceAndMathematics.
$endgroup$
– Nat
1 hour ago
2
2
$begingroup$
Galileo Galilei, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei
$endgroup$
– hyportnex
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
Galileo Galilei, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei
$endgroup$
– hyportnex
1 hour ago
1
1
$begingroup$
"And I have an experiment in mind where one famous guy standing on a church and letting two things fall with different mass to test if gravity acts on every object the same." I think you mean Galileo Galilei.
$endgroup$
– Gert
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
"And I have an experiment in mind where one famous guy standing on a church and letting two things fall with different mass to test if gravity acts on every object the same." I think you mean Galileo Galilei.
$endgroup$
– Gert
1 hour ago
2
2
$begingroup$
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's about the history of physics, not physics primarily.
$endgroup$
– Gert
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's about the history of physics, not physics primarily.
$endgroup$
– Gert
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
This looks like it could be a better fit on SE.HistoryOfScienceAndMathematics.
$endgroup$
– Nat
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
This looks like it could be a better fit on SE.HistoryOfScienceAndMathematics.
$endgroup$
– Nat
1 hour ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
$begingroup$
There are lots of different ways of stating the equivalence principle, and they're not all logically ... er ... equivalent to each other.
Names that come up in this connection, from before Einstein, are Galileo and Eotvos. Experiments that test the equality of gravitational and inertial mass are called Eotvos experiments.
Einstein's version of the equivalence principle is more radical than anything that Galileo or Newton envisioned. It entails throwing away the whole concept of a universal reference frame and instead defining inertial frames as local, free-falling frames. Previously, people had imagined that there was a frame of the "fixed stars," which was as good an approximation to an inertial frame as we would ever need. But according to relativity, observers in New York and Beijing can't even have the same frame of reference.
Taking the equivalence principle seriously also leads to the prediction of gravitational time dilation, which is something that nobody before Einstein had imagined.
answered 1 hour ago
Ben CrowellBen Crowell
53.8k6165313
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add a comment |
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$begingroup$
There are lots of different ways of stating the equivalence principle, and they're not all logically ... er ... equivalent to each other.
Names that come up in this connection, from before Einstein, are Galileo and Eotvos. Experiments that test the equality of gravitational and inertial mass are called Eotvos experiments.
Einstein's version of the equivalence principle is more radical than anything that Galileo or Newton envisioned. It entails throwing away the whole concept of a universal reference frame and instead defining inertial frames as local, free-falling frames. Previously, people had imagined that there was a frame of the "fixed stars," which was as good an approximation to an inertial frame as we would ever need. But according to relativity, observers in New York and Beijing can't even have the same frame of reference.
Taking the equivalence principle seriously also leads to the prediction of gravitational time dilation, which is something that nobody before Einstein had imagined.
answered 1 hour ago
Ben CrowellBen Crowell
53.8k6165313
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
There are lots of different ways of stating the equivalence principle, and they're not all logically ... er ... equivalent to each other.
Names that come up in this connection, from before Einstein, are Galileo and Eotvos. Experiments that test the equality of gravitational and inertial mass are called Eotvos experiments.
Einstein's version of the equivalence principle is more radical than anything that Galileo or Newton envisioned. It entails throwing away the whole concept of a universal reference frame and instead defining inertial frames as local, free-falling frames. Previously, people had imagined that there was a frame of the "fixed stars," which was as good an approximation to an inertial frame as we would ever need. But according to relativity, observers in New York and Beijing can't even have the same frame of reference.
Taking the equivalence principle seriously also leads to the prediction of gravitational time dilation, which is something that nobody before Einstein had imagined.
answered 1 hour ago
Ben CrowellBen Crowell
53.8k6165313
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
There are lots of different ways of stating the equivalence principle, and they're not all logically ... er ... equivalent to each other.
Names that come up in this connection, from before Einstein, are Galileo and Eotvos. Experiments that test the equality of gravitational and inertial mass are called Eotvos experiments.
Einstein's version of the equivalence principle is more radical than anything that Galileo or Newton envisioned. It entails throwing away the whole concept of a universal reference frame and instead defining inertial frames as local, free-falling frames. Previously, people had imagined that there was a frame of the "fixed stars," which was as good an approximation to an inertial frame as we would ever need. But according to relativity, observers in New York and Beijing can't even have the same frame of reference.
Taking the equivalence principle seriously also leads to the prediction of gravitational time dilation, which is something that nobody before Einstein had imagined.
answered 1 hour ago
Ben CrowellBen Crowell
53.8k6165313
$endgroup$
There are lots of different ways of stating the equivalence principle, and they're not all logically ... er ... equivalent to each other.
Names that come up in this connection, from before Einstein, are Galileo and Eotvos. Experiments that test the equality of gravitational and inertial mass are called Eotvos experiments.
Einstein's version of the equivalence principle is more radical than anything that Galileo or Newton envisioned. It entails throwing away the whole concept of a universal reference frame and instead defining inertial frames as local, free-falling frames. Previously, people had imagined that there was a frame of the "fixed stars," which was as good an approximation to an inertial frame as we would ever need. But according to relativity, observers in New York and Beijing can't even have the same frame of reference.
Taking the equivalence principle seriously also leads to the prediction of gravitational time dilation, which is something that nobody before Einstein had imagined.
answered 1 hour ago
Ben CrowellBen Crowell
53.8k6165313
answered 1 hour ago
Ben CrowellBen Crowell
53.8k6165313
answered 1 hour ago
Ben CrowellBen Crowell
53.8k6165313
answered 1 hour ago
Ben CrowellBen Crowell
53.8k6165313
53.8k6165313
add a comment |
add a comment |
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$begingroup$
Galileo Galilei, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei
$endgroup$
– hyportnex
1 hour ago
1
$begingroup$
"And I have an experiment in mind where one famous guy standing on a church and letting two things fall with different mass to test if gravity acts on every object the same." I think you mean Galileo Galilei.
$endgroup$
– Gert
1 hour ago
2
$begingroup$
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's about the history of physics, not physics primarily.
$endgroup$
– Gert
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
This looks like it could be a better fit on SE.HistoryOfScienceAndMathematics.
$endgroup$
– Nat
1 hour ago