THE EQUALITY OF INERTIAL AND GRAVITATIONAL MASS AS AN ARGUMENT FOR THE GENERAL POSTULE OF RELATIVITY

We imagine a large portion of empty space, so far removed from stars and other appreciable masses, that we have before us approximately the conditions required by the fundamental law of Galilei.  It is then possible to choose a Galileian reference-body for this part of space (world), relative to which points at rest remain at rest and points in motion continue permanently in uniform rectilinear motion.  As reference-body let us imagine a spacious chest resembling a room with an observer inside who is equipped with apparatus.  Gravitation naturally does not exist for this observer.  He must fasten himself with strings to the floor, otherwise the slightest impact against the floor will cause him to rise slowly towards the ceiling of the room.

To the middle of the lid of the chest is fixed externally a hook with rope attached, and now a " being " (what kind of a being is immaterial to us) begins pulling at this with a constant force.  The chest together with the observer then begin to move “upwards” with a uniformly accelerated motion.  In course of time their velocity will reach unheard-of values —­ provided that we are viewing all this from another reference-body which is not being pulled with a rope.

But how does the man in the chest regard the Process ?  The acceleration of the chest will be transmitted to him by the reaction of the floor of the chest.  He must therefore take up this pressure by means of his legs if he does not wish to be laid out full length on the floor.  He is then standing in the chest in exactly the same way as anyone stands in a room of a home on our earth.  If he releases a body which he previously had in his land, the accelertion of the chest will no longer be transmitted to this body, and for this reason the body will approach the floor of the chest with an accelerated relative motion.  The observer will further convince himself that the acceleration of the body towards the floor of the chest is always of the same magnitude, whatever kind of body he may happen to use for the experiment.

Relying on his knowledge of the gravitational field (as it was discussed in the preceding section), the man in the chest will thus come to the conclusion that he and the chest are in a gravitational field which is constant with regard to time.  Of course he will be puzzled for a moment as to why the chest does not fall in this gravitational field. just then, however, he discovers the hook in the middle of the lid of the chest and the rope which is attached to it, and he consequently comes to the conclusion that the chest is suspended at rest in the gravitational field.