SIDELIGHTS ON RELATIVITY

Back Forward Menu

in the stars, vanishes, i.e. if the ratio of the total mass of the
stars to the magnitude of the space through which they are scattered
approximates indefinitely to the value zero when the spaces taken
into consideration are constantly greater and greater.

2. The universe is spatially finite. This must be so, if there is
a mean density of the ponderable matter in universal space differing
from zero. The smaller that mean density, the greater is the volume
of universal space.

I must not fail to mention that a theoretical argument can be adduced in
favour of the hypothesis of a finite universe. The general theory
of relativity teaches that the inertia of a given body is greater as
there are more ponderable masses in proximity to it; thus it seems
very natural to reduce the total effect of inertia of a body to
action and reaction between it and the other bodies in the universe,
as indeed, ever since Newton's time, gravity has been completely