Abstract

?A Mechanical Test of the Equivalence Principle? [1] has not been successfully refuted in the 17+ years it has been in the public domain ? in fact it has been mostly ignored ? especially by orthodox physics. It is only fair to say, however, that a satisfactory explanation of the anomalous ?energy loss' documented there has also not been completely explained either. By way of a more straightforward physical experiment, the current paper seeks to demonstrate a possible explanation of the former experiment and also shed new light on the conventional classical laws of motion (non-relativistic and non-quantum). Newton's Second Law, as applied to linear acceleration (where work is being performed by electromagnetic forces), is directly pitted against the acceleration of gravity. The results leave little doubt that the cornerstone of General Relativity is incorrect; but more importantly, the results demonstrate that Newton's Second Law, in this situation, is also incorrect by a significant amount (approx 3.0% of the projected inertial force of a test mass having work performed on it by a falling gravitational mass, i.e., having its kinetic energy increased horizontally). We cannot escape the conclusion that it is a grave error to always treat gravitational mass and inertial mass the same.