Scale relativity new principle of relativity. Mathematically, this can be expressed through the principle of covariance applied to scales, that is, the invariance of the form of physics equations under transformations of resolutions (dilations and contractions). Galileo introduced explicitly velocity parameters in the observational referential. Then, Einstein introduced explicitly acceleration parameters. In a similar way, Nottale introduces scale parameters explicitly in the observational referential. The core idea of scale-relativity is thus to include resolutions explicitly in coordinate systems, thereby integrating measure theory in the formulation of physical laws. An important consequence is that coordinates are not numbers anymore, but "functions", which depend
General relativity (cf. below). The actual measurements show that free-falling frames are the ones in which light propagates as it does in special relativity. The generalization of this statement, namely that the laws of special relativity hold to good approximation in freely falling (and non-rotating) reference frames, is known as the Einstein equivalence principle, a crucial guiding principle for generalizing special-relativistic physics to include gravity. The same experimental data shows that time as measured by clocks in a gravitational field—proper time, to give the technical term—does not follow the rules of special relativity. In the language of spacetime geometry, it is not