Regarding Newton's "bucket experiment", Mach wrote in the book "Review of Mechanical History" published in 1883: "Newton's rotating bucket experiment only tells us that the relative rotation of water on the bucket wall will not cause significant centrifugal force, and the centrifugal force is produced by the relative rotation of water transferring the mass of the earth and other celestial bodies. If the barrel wall becomes thicker and heavier until it reaches a few miles thick, no one can say what the result of this experiment will be. " "If you fix the bucket and let the stars rotate, can you prove again whether centrifugal force will exist?" In Mach's view, there is no absolute space and absolute motion at all, and the motion of objects is relative to the motion of celestial bodies in the universe; The inertia of an object is the result of the action of all celestial bodies in the universe. If all other substances around an object are removed, it is impossible to judge what motion it is doing, so it no longer has inertia. Therefore, the concave behavior in Newton's bucket experiment can't tell whether it is the rotation of water relative to absolute space or the rotation of water relative to stars, so it can't be concluded that absolute space exists. On the contrary, it is more natural to regard the concave behavior of the water surface as the rotation of water relative to the star, that is, the attraction and drive of all the masses except the inner wall of the bucket. Mach's unique philosophy of our world profoundly criticized Newton's absolute space.

Mach said that there is no absolute space and absolute motion, which is correct; But he said that it is wrong to remove all other substances around an object, so it is impossible to judge what it is doing. Remove all other substances around an object, because the object itself has many parts, it can also do relative motion. Actually, Mach doesn't understand: Mach space = "nothing"+"something". Mach's solution against absolute space is to completely abandon the "nothing+existence" space as a "thing". Mach principle provides an intuitive way to understand these effects, while the method of general relativity is highly mathematical.