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If I'm in a room that accelerates through empty space uniformly I won't measure tidal forces. The situation is the same as standing on an infinite massive plane. So I could think, while looking outside, that all stars are actually in free fall to that infinite plane. My acceleration is absolute but my motion is not. I could just as well stand still while all stars gain motion. Or is there a way to tell which is the case? I can't see the infinite plane though, but maybe that's situated far away, say behind the horizon. Maybe all matter in the universe is falling to such a plane at this moment! In a closed universe this would be impossible. But who says this isn't the case if the universe is infinite? We can gauge it away, or can't we?

Qmechanic
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