On the multiple deaths of Whitehead's theory of gravity

DOI10.1016/J.SHPSB.2007.04.004MaRDI QIDQ643142zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Clifford M. Will, Gary W. Gibbons

Publication date 27 October 2011

Published in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Part B. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0611006

zbMATH Keywords

relativitytests of general relativityWhitehead's theory

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Philosophy of mathematics (00A30) History of mathematics in the 20th century (01A60) History of relativity and gravitational theory (83-03) Experimental work for problems pertaining to relativity and gravitational theory (83-05)

Abstract: Whitehead's 1922 theory of gravitation continues to attract the attention of philosophers, despite evidence presented in 1971 that it violates experiment. We demonstrate that the theory strongly fails five quite different experimental tests, and conclude that, notwithstanding its meritorious philosophical underpinnings, Whitehead's theory is truly dead.

Recommendations

• Putting Whitehead's theory of gravitation in its historical context
• The Minkowskian background of Whitehead's theory of gravitation
• The Newtonian theory of gravitation and its generalization
• A nonmetric theory of gravity
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4073909

Cites work

• Hamilton-Jacobi and Schrödinger separable solutions of Einstein's equations
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 146460 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3240349 (Why is no real title available?)
• Note on the Whitehead-Rayner expanding universe
• On gravitational theories of Whitehead’s type
• Orbits and rays in the gravitational field of a finite sphere according to the theory of A. N. Whitehead
• Test of Lense - Thirring orbital shift due to spin
• The application of the Whitehead theory of relativity to non-static, spherically symmetrical systems
• The confrontation between general relativity and experiment
• The effects of rotation of the central body on its planetary orbits, after the Whitehead theory of gravitation
• The Eötvös experiment, spatial isotropy, and generally covariant field theories of gravity
• The Schwarzschild Metric and the Whitehead Theory of Gravitation
• Two challenges to the requirement of substantive general covariance
• Whitehead's Law of Gravitation in a Space-Time of Constant Curvature
• Whitehead's theory of gravity

Cited in

(5)

• Putting Whitehead's theory of gravitation in its historical context
• The Minkowskian background of Whitehead's theory of gravitation
• Putting General Relativity to the test: twentieth-century highlights and twenty-first-century prospects
• Brief history of a relativistic century
• A theory of gravity in Minkowski space

This page was built for publication: On the multiple deaths of Whitehead's theory of gravity

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q643142)