Mach's Principle, Mass Fluctuations, And Rapid Spacetime Transport
| Scientific Paper | |
|---|---|
| Title | Mach\'s Principle, Mass Fluctuations, And Rapid Spacetime Transport |
| Author(s) | James F Woodward |
| Keywords | mach, gravity |
| Published | 1998 |
| Journal | None |
| No. of pages | 44 |
Abstract
The argument that Mach's principle and relativistic gravity lead to the expectation of transient fluctuations in the rest masses of objects when they are accelerated by external forces is briefly recapitulated. In appropriate circumstances such mass fluctuations can be employed to produce stationary forces (notwithstanding that in some frames of reference one may think such forces cancelled by other forces). A torsion pendulum experiment designed to search for such stationary forces is described. Small forces with the signatures expected were found. Tests of other causes that the signals might be attributed to are presented. These tests seem to rule out spurious effects as the source of the signals seen. Whether the forces seen can be brought to practical levels for rapid spacetime transport with clever engineering remains an open question.
