Origin of Inertia
 Extended Mach's Principle and Cosmological Consequences

(paperback, 147 pages; ISBN 0-9683689-3-X)

Amitabha Ghosh

The riddle of inertia solved!  

From  the Author’s preface

About the Author

Table of contents  

From the Author's Preface

The preface of a scientific work is usually considered unimportant by most readers. Only a few (not necessarily the serious readers) may take interest in this prelude, primarily to see how the author was motivated to write the book. Some may also want to check if their names figure in the acknowledgements. This is not a usual sort of scientific presentation. This is a monograph in which a mechanical engineer has ventured to extend and modify fundamental concepts of physics with a view to solving some of the longstanding unresolved problems of astrophysics and cosmology. This makes this preface not only very much in order, but perhaps, absolutely essential.

Let me explain how I made this adventurous digression from my own professional field of study. This unusual volume contains the results of about twelve years' (1983-1995) work and solitary effort on my part. It started with a desire to explain the origin of inertia to the students of my second year Dynamics class. Some anticipatory attempts to introduce certain modifications to the existing formalism led to startling results, which surprised my colleagues in the Physics Department of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. They found the results to be very intriguing, though difficult to reconcile with the framework of conventional physics. As soon as a few initial conclusions were corroborated through existing experimental and/or observational results, some reputable cosmologists and astronomers suggested that I apply the proposed modifications to more and more cases. I persisted, and found that the theory was not only able to yield quantitatively correct results in each case, but in many cases resolved certain unexplained phenomena. Then I realised for the first time that I could not set the whole matter aside but should try to develop a systematic theory on the basis of what I propose and what I have accomplished. However, I must mention that only rarely does one encounter clear phenomena in nature where only one mechanism is operative. Since the magnitudes involved in such phenomena are very small, it is difficult to come to a definite conclusion. It has been possible to identify a few cases where conclusions can be drawn with a reasonable degree of confidence, and the observations support the proposed theory.

The primary theme of this monograph is a theory in which Newton's static gravitational interaction has been replaced by a new dynamic model. According to this theory the interactive gravitational force between two objects depends not only on the separation but also on the relative velocity and acceleration between the interacting bodies. In a sense it is an extension of Mach's Principle, and could be termed the Extended Mach's Principle. According to Mach's Principle a force acts on an accelerating object due to its interaction with the matter present in the rest of the universe. In the Extended Mach's Principle such an interactive force acts on a body due to its velocity (in the mean rest frame of the universe) also. This force has been termed the Cosmic Drag. The initial Chapters offer some general discussions and highlight certain interesting features of the fundamental problem of motion. It has been demonstrated that in a relational framework an absolute character can be assigned to displacement, and hence it is meaningful to talk about an absolute frame of reference in an infinite, non-evolving and quasistatic universe satisfying the Perfect Cosmological Principle. A brief account of the basic difficulties in the Newtonian formulation of mechanics is then presented, followed by a historical account of how the earlier researchers tried to resolve these issues through various suggestions for modifications in Newton's laws. The next chapter presents Sciama's attempt to quantify Mach's Principle and his model of acceleration dependent inertial induction. Next, this is extended to include a velocity-dependent inertial induction term. Though very small, the effect of the velocity dependent inertial induction term introduces some fundamental changes in the basic framework of mechanics, leading to a modified law of motion. The exact equivalence of gravitational and inertial masses emerges as a natural consequence of the dynamic gravitational interaction.

Another startling result of this modification is the emergence of a cosmic drag term, whereby all objects are subjected to a drag force depending on the velocity with respect to the mean-rest-frame of the infinite, homogeneous and quasistatic universe. Though not easily open to detection by any experiment because of its extremely small magnitude, this cosmic drag term gives rise to the observed cosmological redshift without invoking any expansion hypothesis. This eliminates the need for introducing a Big Bang to start the universe. Here I anticipate a criticism that I am questioning a cosmological theory accepted by the majority of mainstream physicists around the world. The Big Bang Theory has become so popular now that very few remember it is still only a hypothesis. Scientists who believe that the search for alternatives to Big Bang cosmology should not be restricted are quite fewer in number. I am presenting this alternative model with the belief that the scope of scientific research is always wider than many people think. The proposed model yields very good results in a number of other phenomena of different types. This is very important, as these phenomena are unrelated, and the proposed model does not have any adjustable free parameters. The proposed theory and any model of the extended version of inertial induction can be further tested on new observations with higher accuracy. Since this model is likely to open new vistas, other researchers can take up the necessary work to verify the correctness of the proposed theory.

The most difficult part of the whole exercise is deciding on an appropriate title of this monograph. An attempt to make it technically precise can render it unfamiliar and uninteresting. On the other hand, a catchy and attractive title may be imprecise and go against the true scientific spirit. I have tried to strike a balance, but whether I have been successful in my endeavour can be judged by the readers. My primary objective is to attract the attention of prospective serious readers. However, it is the subject matter and the text, not the title, which ultimately decides whether the initial interest will be sustained or not as a reader goes through the book.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Mean Rest Frame

1.3 Laws of Motion and Universal Gravitation

1.3.1 The discovery of dynamics

1.3.2 The laws of motion and universal gravitation

1.3.3 The basic nature of motion

2. Difficulties with Newton's Laws of Motion

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Difficulties Associated with the Laws

2.3 Difficulties with the Predictions

2.4 Proposed Modifications

3. Mach's Principle and Inertial Induction

3.1 The Origin of Inertia

3.2 Quantifying Mach's Principle

3.3 Relative Contributions to Inertia and Mass Anisotropy

4. Extension of Mach's Principle

4.1 Extension of Mach's Principle

4.2 Dynamic Gravitational Interaction

4.3 Inertial Induction

5. Universal Interaction and Cosmic Drag

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Model of the Universe

5.3 Law of Motion and Cosmic Drag

5.4 Magnitude of Cosmic Drag

6. Cosmic Drag : Cosmological Implications

6.1 Cosmic Drag and the First Law of Motion

6.2 Cosmic Drag and Cosmological Redshift

6.3 Hubble Anisotropy

6.4 Rotating Bodies in Space

7. Local Interaction of photons with matter

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Gravitational Redshift

7.3 Redshifts in White Dwarfs

7.4 Excess Redshift of Solar Spectrum at the Limb

7.5 Redshift of Photons Grazing a Massive Object

8. Interaction of Matter with Matter

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Inertial Induction in Some Ideal Configurations

8.2.1 Force on a particle due to a rotating ring

8.2.2 Force on a particle due to a rotating spherical shell

8.2.3 Force on a particle due to a rotating sphere

8.2.4 Torque on a rotating sphere in the vicinity of a large massive body

8.3 Secular Retardation of the Earth's Rotation

8.4 Explanation from Velocity Dependent Inertial Induction

8.4.1 Secular retardation of Earth's spin due to velocity dependent inertial induction of the Sun

8.5 Secular Retardation of Mars

8.6 Secular Acceleration of Phobos

8.7 Transfer of Solar Angular Momentum

8.8 Matter Distribution in Spiral Galaxies

9. Extra-galactic Phenomena

9.1 Introduction

9.2 True Velocity Dispersion

9.2.1 Determination of true velocity dispersion

9.2.2 Effect of local variation in k and shape distortion

9.2.3 Dependence of apparent magnitude on redshift

9.2.4 Analysis of Coma and Perseus clusters

9.3 A Concept of Potential Energy in an Infinite Universe

9.4 The Problem of the Great Attractor

9.5 The Nature of the Universe

Epilogue

About the Author

Amitabha Ghosh (born December 3, 1941) earned a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) degree in 1962, a Master of Engineering (Mechanical) in 1964 and a Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) in 1969, all from Calcutta University. In his Bachelor’s and Master’s years, he was the recipient of the University Gold Medal for highest standing in all branches of engineering. He was a lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur, from 1965 to 1970, and then served as Assistant Professor and finally Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur from 1971 to 1997, when he was appointed Director of IIT Kharagpur, the oldest and largest of the IIT campuses. He has been a Senior Fellow of the Alexander Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany since 1977, and is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian Academy of Science and the Indian National Science Academy.

Professor Ghosh’s professional interest lies in the fields of Manufacturing Science and Engineering Mechanics. He discovered a number of interesting phenomena, one of the more important being the effect of magnetic fields on wear. He was among the first to observe chaos in mechanical systems, and conducted one of the first experiments on chaos in mechanical systems in 1979. He pioneered teaching and research in the field of Robotics in India in 1984, and in 1989 helped found the Centre for Robotics at IIT Kanpur, where he inaugurated the first specialized postgraduate course in Robotics. He has published over 120 research papers and four books in India, the UK and the USA.