Re: General Covariance, Principle of Equivalence, and PI

>>From Osher Doctorow

How much do we actually need SR mathematically in spite of the
"overwhelming observational evidence" in favor of it so to speak?

Well, Steven Weinberg (1972) tells us this curious fact: there are
generally covariant theories of gravitation that allow the construction
of inertial frames at any point in gravitational fields but don't
satisfy special relativity in these frames but rather Galilean
relativity. He cites in particular K. O. Friedrichs (hopefully O. for
Oskar), Math. Ann. 98, 566 (1928), though as I've been forbidden from
arXiv and Front For the Mathematics arXiv for "indiscriminate
downloading" (translation downloading too many papers, which I did very
carefully and with particular goals in mind), I wouldn't be able to
read a reference like Friedrichs in modern times without spending the
money subscribing to the journal or xeroxing it or sitting for hours
(days?) in research libraries including making notes. As somebody said
of Emperor Franz-Josef with regard to Mozart, "if he says it, it must
be true." And I'm convinced that Weinberg and Friedrichs are neither
giving us BS nor lying. I also have Alfred Nobel's word on it via
Weinberg's Nobel Prize so to speak.

Osher Doctorow

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