Despite David Bowman's gracious and detailed response to my and Joel's
pleas for enlightenment concerning Desloge's demonstration (AJP, December
1989) that one can distinguish between uniform gravity and uniform
acceleration, I still hunger for a more conceptually satisfying
explanation.
What I want to know is, what specific observations could I make--possibly
in conjunction with others with whom I can communicate and in terms of
measurements made with local clocks and measuring rods--that would both 1)
rule out the possibility that I am uniformly accelerating with respect to
a gravitation free universe and 2) NOT rule out the possibility that the
universe is filled with a uniform gravitational field, or vice-versa.
Unless there is a reasonable answer to this question, I'm afraid I'll
simply have to go on conducting my life as though uniform gravity is
strictly equivalent to acceleration.
John
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A. John Mallinckrodt http://www.intranet.csupomona.edu/~ajm
Professor of Physics mailto:ajmallinckro@csupomona.edu
Physics Department voice:909-869-4054
Cal Poly Pomona fax:909-869-5090
Pomona, CA 91768-4031 office:Building 8, Room 223