General Relativity and Mach's Principle

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Abstract
Sciama, among others, has taken the view that general relativity has failed to account satisfactorily for the inertial properties of matter. This paper shows that general relativity is entirely consistent in principle with Sciama's ideas of inertia as an inductive effect predominantly of distant matter, and that therefore his remarks concerning general relativity are not justified. It is shown that general relativity provides a superior presentation of his idea of Mach's principle and appears to be the general tensor theory he was looking for. Arguments are put forward to show that general relativity may fully incorporate Mach's principle contrary to Einstein's own belief. This paper emphasizes the fitness of the steady state theory as a cosmological solution which permits this possibility.

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