The equivalence principle

Abstract

For the example of the motion of an accelerated charge it is shown that an inertial frame of reference in which there is a homogeneous static gravitational field with strength g is physically inequivalent to a uniformly accelerated frame of reference moving with acceleration-g with respect to the inertial frame of reference. It follows from this that the equivalence principle does not hold in the usual formulation. The widely held opinion that such a principle is the basis of the general theory of relativity is not entirely correct. Einstein's theory of gravitation is based on an equivalence principle of a deeper content, which takes the form that the metric fieldg _μν of a Riemannian space is declared to be a gravitational field. Such is the “natural formulation of the equivalence principle” at which Einstein subsequently arrived.