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Mach's principle 
Related: Physics
| (mäks) [for E. Mach ],
assertion that the inertial effects of mass are not
innate in a body, but arise from its relation to the totality of all
other masses, i.e., to the universe as a whole. Thus, the inertial
forces experienced by a body in accelerated motion have the same
physical origin as the gravitational forces it experiences near mass
concentrations, namely the mass-energy field
described by the general theory of relativity
. Inertial forces have a much longer range than gravitational
forces, so the role of very distant matter becomes preponderant.
According to Mach's principle, a body experiences no inertial forces
when it is at rest or in uniform motion with respect to the center of
mass of the entire universe. When its motion is nonuniform
(accelerated) with respect to the total mass of the universe, it
experiences forces such as centrifugal force (see centripetal
force and centrifugal force ) and the Coriolis
effect . Hence, the “local” behavior of matter is influenced by
the “global” properties of the universe, i.e., those properties that
describe the universe as a whole, which are studied in cosmology
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Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, Copyright
(c) 2003.
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