In a message dated 98-02-18 18:19:09 EST, A. R. Marlow writes:
<< I don't have any problem with
teaching a Newtonian model of gravitational force -- it's a good model
as long as you can avoid the problems connected with instantaneous action
at a distance (conflict with special relativity, Etc.), and it gets us to
the moon and beyond. No place in it is there any need to introduce any
fictitious forces with no third law correspondents. >>
And in an earlier message:
<<However, exactly as in the case of the centrifuge, we are psychologically
tempted to create a downward force acting on us and pressing us to the
surface of the earth; it doesn't exist, can do no work and isn't
perceived by our senses, and so it is rightly said to be fictitious.>>
Now I am confused. In GR, is the gravitational force fictional or not?