Einstein Archives - Manhattan Rare Book Company

EINSTEIN, ALBERT

Prinzipielles zur allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie [On the Foundations of the General Theory of Relativity]

FIRST EDITION IN SCARCE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS of Einstein’s discussion of ‘Mach’s Principle,’ what he identified as one of the three pillars of General Relativity.

"In a short paper submitted in March 1918, in which Einstein silently corrected some of his pronouncements on the foundations of general relativity in the 1916 review article, he introduced… Mach's principle. This was one of the three principles Einstein identified in this paper as the cornerstones of his theory, the other two being the equivalence principle and the relativity principle…. " (Cambridge Companion to Einstein).

"He formulated [Mach's principle] as follows: 'The G-field is completely determined by masses of the bodies…; this means that the G-field is conditioned and determined by the energy tensor of matter.' In the footnote to this passage, he wrote: 'I have chosen the name 'Mach's principle' because this principle has the significance of a generalization of Mach's requirement that inertia should be derived from an interaction of bodies.' Einstein goes on to explain that, in general, Mach's principle may be not fulfilled in General Relativity. But if field equations are modified to include the cosmological lambda-term, they yield a solution in the form of a static (spherical or elliptical) closed world, in which Mach's principle is realized. It thus became clear that, drawing on the ideas close to Mach's principle, Einstein built a theory (General Relativity) which does not, in general, involve this principle. Consequently, all the issues raised by Mach's principle have preserved their basic meaning only in the cosmological context" (Balashov and Vizgin, Einstein Studies in Russia). Weil 96.

IN: Annalen der Physik, Vol. 55 (1918), pp. 241-4. Leipzig: Barth, 1918. Octavo, original wrappers. Small closed tear at base of front wrapper, a little wear to spine. An extremely rare survival in the fragile original wrappers.

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