The Electrodynamic Origin of the Force of Inertia, Part 2
Charles William Lucas
A review of Newton?s Principia shows his dependence on his Existence Theorem for absolute space and time in order to explain the force of inertia and the centrifugal force in terms of absolute coordinates. A review of the history of Einstein?s General Theory of Relativity reveals his failure to establish the basis of inertia and the centrifugal force in terms of relative coordinates as Mach had envisioned. In this work the force of inertia, including the centrifugal force, is derived from the universal electrodynamic force law based on relative coordinates. From the electrodynamic perspective the inertial force is an average residual force between vibrating neutral electric dipoles consisting of atomic electrons vibrating with respect to protons in the nucleus of atoms. The inertial mass is derived and shown to be equal to the derived gravitational mass resulting from the same universal force law. The vibrational mechanism for both gravitational and inertial mass causes the magnitude of both masses to decay over time. The derived electrodynamic inertial force has a second term, a non-radial R x (R x A) term, which describes certain observed non-Newtonian inertial gyroscopic motions. Arguments are made that this derived law of inertia is superior to both Newton?s Law of Inertia (F = ma) and Einstein?s field equations of General Relativity Theory, because (1) it is properly based on local contact forces instead of unphysical action-at-a-distance forces, (2) it is based on forces between finite-size particles instead of imaginary point particles, (3) it is based on relative coordinates instead of fictitious absolute space coordinates, (4) it is derived from a universal force law, (5) it explains the centrifugal force as a piece of the inertial force, (6) it is simpler and does not need mass as a fundamental quantity, (7) it explains the apparent equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass, (8) it contains a new non-radial R x (R x A) term that describes additional observed phenomena not previously explained by any theory of inertia, and (9) it contains relativistic type v/c corrections for high velocity.
