The General Theory of Relativity and Newton's Law of Gravitation

Abstract

IT is generally believed that the general theory of relativity is a theory of gravitation which treats only the case for which the Newtonian attraction between particles m ₁, m ₂ at a distance d apart is γm ₁ m ₂/d ², where γ is a constant, and that the case when γ is replaced by a variable quantity γ′ is beyond the scope of the theory. I do not believe that this is the case, and in the following argument I endeavour to show that the general theory of relativity can, in fact, treat the case when γ′ is a slowly varying function of the time, of the type found in Dirac's cosmology¹.