Starting off from noneuclidean geometries, apart from the method of Einstein's equations, this book derives and describes the phenomena of gravitation and diffraction. A historical account is presented, exposing the missing link in Einstein's construction of the theory of general relativity: the uniformly rotating disc, together with his failure to realize, that the Beltrami metric of hyperbolic geometry with constant curvature describes exactly the uniform acceleration observed. This book also explores these questions: * How does time bend? * Why should gravity propagate at the speed of light? * How does the expansion function of the universe relate to the absolute constant of the noneuclidean geometries? * Why was the Sagnac effect ignored? * Can Maxwell's equations accommodate mass? * Is there an inertia due solely to polarization? * Can objects expand in elliptic geometry like they contract in hyperbolic geometry?
Inhaltsverzeichnis
A Brief History of Relativity, Light, and Gravity; Which Geometry?; The Origins of Mass; Relativity of Thermodynamics; The 'General' Theory Short-Circuited; Relativity of Hyperbolic Space; Nonequivalence of Gravitation and Acceleration; Aberration and Radiation Pressure in the Klein and Poincare Models; The Inertia of Polarization.
