Classical Mechanics recast with Mach’s Principle

Abstract

Newton introduced the absolute space as a basis of his mechanics. Inertia causes the resistance of masses against an acceleration with respect to this space. Mach raised the objection that this space is unphysical since it is not tangible. He proposed to describe inertial forces in a similar manner like gravitational ones, namely as produced by all masses of the universe. The paper at hand gives the mathematical exploitation of Mach’s concept. Only relative motions of masses enter the resulting equations. Their solutions, however, do not differ from   those of Newton’s approach.