This entry contributed by Dana Romero
In his book The Science of Mechanics (1893), Ernst Mach Eric Weisstein's World of Biography put forth the idea that it did not make sense to speak of the acceleration of a mass relative to absolute space. Rather, one would do better to speak of acceleration relative to the distant stars. What this implies is that the inertia of a body here is influenced by matter far distant. This had a great influence on Einstein Eric Weisstein's World of Biography and in the development of his theory of general relativity.
Acceleration, General Relativity, Inertia
References
Barbour, J. and Pfister, H. Mach's Principle: From Newton's Bucket to Quantum Gravity. Boston, MA: Birkhäuser, 1995.
Mach, E. The Science of Mechanics: A Critical and Historical Exposition of Its Principles. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 1893.
Misner, C. W.; Thorne, K. S.; and Wheeler, J. A. Gravitation. San Francisco, CA: W. H. Freeman, 1973.
