Reference: Einstein’s 1920 Book
Section XXX (Part 3)
Cosmological Difficulties of Newton’s Theory
Please see Section XXX at the link above.
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Summary
The universe appears to be homogenous on a cosmic scale. But this view is not in harmony with the theory of Newton, according to which the stellar universe ought to be a finite island in the infinite ocean of space.
It is thought that light would be escaping this island universe without ever returning and this shall violate the law of conservation of energy; but this is not certain.
As a result a modification is suggested to Newton’s law of gravitation that would limit the size of gravitational fields, and make universe appear not to be centered. But we do not know if the universe is centered or not. The real problem is that we have no law of gravity that has a firm theoretical foundation.
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Final Comments
Einstein is looking at the problem of not having a strong empirical or theoretical foundation for Newton’s Law of Gravity.
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