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Originally Posted by AntonioLao |
No, it isn't the same as Mach's principle. Mach's principle is saying that inertia is in relation to other objects, notably stars. I think Mach must have confused momentum with inertia.
Inertia is merely a dimension. Inertia is to mass as length is to distance.
I agree, it is a difficult concept to grasp unless you can relate inertia to your own direct experience of mass. Extend an arm in front of you and hold it as still as you possibly can. While your hand is still, try to sense the inertia in it. Do this for about one minute. When you think you are not feeling any inertia, move your arm and hand suddenly to the side, still paying attention to the inertia. If you do this a few times, you'll start to get a feel for inertia.
Another useful exercise is to visualize the various units that have mass as one of the dimensions. For example, there is resistance, magnetic flux, momentum, force, energy, acceleration, magnetic field, and mass density. Contemplate exactly what each of those units mean. Each of the above named units contains inertia, but expressed in a different way.
Then think about inertia in your macro environment. The photons moving through space have inertia. The wind has inertia. Your chair has inertia. The computer monitor has inertia. Your hair has inertia. Sound has inertia. Smells have inertia.
Just as you exist in a room containing numerous objects of varying length, you also exist in a room containing objects of varying inertia.
Pretend for a moment that you are in the movie, The Matrix. You are Neo and you just exploded out of Agent Smith. Now instead of seeing computer code all around you, imagine your reality as being composed of just four dimensions; length, frequency, mass, and charge. That is exactly the nature of your reality.
The world you call reality is an endless variation of just four dimensions. Even the space-time in which your material world exists is made from the same stuff. All the colors, sounds, shapes, textures, materials, brightness, heaviness, and every other characteristic you imagine is nothing more than these four dimensions in various configurations.
Inertia is not a thing, it is a non-material characteristic. But this non-material characteristic is a building block of objects and their behavior. You can measure inertia, just as you can measure length. You can measure the length from your eyes to your monitor, but what is it that you are really measuring? If you move away from your monitor the length increases, but where is it? What is length? It is obviously very real, yet it is also non-material. Inertia behaves in the same way. It is measurable, but there is nothing there.
Mach's definition of inertia would be like saying distance depends on the stars. We don't need stars to measure distance. Likewise, we don't need the rest of the Universe to measure inertia.