Word.ws English Dictionary

Mach's principle

Mach's principle proper noun: the principle that the inertia of a body arises from its relation to the totality of all other bodies in the universe.

Proper noun

Mach's principle

  1. The principle that the inertia of a body arises from its relation to the totality of all other bodies in the universe.
    • We now discuss a theory of gravitation and cosmology which is perhaps more strongly rooted in Mach's principle than any other theory discussed so far.1988, J. V. Narlikar, A. K. Kembhavi, “Nonstandard Cosmologies”, in Vittorio Canuto, Bruce G. Elmegreen, editors, Handbook of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Geophysics, Volume II: Galaxies and...
    • Thus, in any case, quantum theory is based on an absolute space-time picture and, therefore, in these formulations Mach's principle is not fulfiled.^([sic]) The following important question arises: Can quantum phenomena be treated in accordance with Mach's principle?1995, Wolfram Schommers, Symbols, Pictures and Quantum Reality, World Scientific, page 94

Synonyms of Mach's principle

Origin of Mach's principle

Named after German physicist Ernst Mach, to whom the hypothesis is often attributed. Coined by Albert Einstein, who sought to incorporate the hypothesis into his theory of general relativity.

Questions about Mach's principle

What does Mach's principle mean?
Mach's principle means the principle that the inertia of a body arises from its relation to the totality of all other bodies in the universe.
What part of speech is Mach's principle?
Mach's principle is a proper noun.

Words near Mach's principle in the dictionary

  1. Mach tucking
  2. Mach tucks
  3. Mach wave
  4. Mach waves
  5. Mach's conjecture
  6. Mach's principle
  7. Mach-Zehnder interferometer
  8. Mach-Zehnder interferometers
  9. mach.
  10. macha
  11. Machabee

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Mach's principle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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