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I’m an electrical engineer. When explaining gravity in GR terms to my peers, and I get to the part about there being no net force acting upon an object that’s “free falling” in curved spacetime, I have difficulty countering the argument:
“Yeah, you can’t measure a net force because gravity is pulling on all parts of the free falling matter equally.”
The fact that photons are affected by curved spacetime doesn’t seem to impress them as much as it does me, and so while I’m content believing that there are no net external forces acting on a free falling object, trying to convince others has proven to be a difficult task.
I know how to build accelerometers that show that there are no external forces during free fall, but does anyone out there know of any better techniques or arguments?
Thanks.
Bob Walance
“Yeah, you can’t measure a net force because gravity is pulling on all parts of the free falling matter equally.”
The fact that photons are affected by curved spacetime doesn’t seem to impress them as much as it does me, and so while I’m content believing that there are no net external forces acting on a free falling object, trying to convince others has proven to be a difficult task.
I know how to build accelerometers that show that there are no external forces during free fall, but does anyone out there know of any better techniques or arguments?
Thanks.
Bob Walance