SIDELIGHTS ON RELATIVITY

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It is true that Mach tried to avoid having to accept as real something
which is not observable by endeavouring to substitute in mechanics
a mean acceleration with reference to the totality of the masses in
the universe in place of an acceleration with reference to absolute
space. But inertial resistance opposed to relative acceleration of
distant masses presupposes action at a distance; and as the modern
physicist does not believe that he may accept this action at
a distance, he comes back once more, if he follows Mach, to the
ether, which has to serve as medium for the effects of inertia. But
this conception of the ether to which we are led by Mach's way of
thinking differs essentially from the ether as conceived by Newton,
by Fresnel, and by Lorentz. Mach's ether not only _conditions_ the
behaviour of inert masses, but _is also conditioned_ in its state
by them.

Mach's idea finds its full development in the ether of the general
theory of relativity. According to this theory the metrical