From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!BIESEL@RUTGERS Newsgroups: net.physics Title: General Relativity Paradox (?) Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.453 Posted: Tue Feb 15 15:46:00 1983 Received: Mon Feb 21 09:00:38 1983 Recently an acquaintance popped this on me, and I was unable to answer his questions satisfactorily. General Relativity states that no experiment performed within non-inertial reference frames can distinguish between 1) Acceleration due to a gravitational field 2) Constant acceleration due to propulsion, for example. (Of course, an outside observer can always distinguish between these two cases) assume two identical closed boxes, each containing an observer and an electrically charged sphere. One of the boxes resides in a constant gravitational field, the other is undergoing constant linear acceleration in 'flat' space. Now Maxwell's equations predict that an accelerationg charge will generate an electromagnetic field, and will radiate energy ( which presumably comes from the energy supplying the acceleration). General Relativity would seem to demand that the charged sphere in the gravitational also radiate energy. If so, where does the energy come from; if not, how does this square with General Relativity? Where is the fallacy? Regards, Pete. -------