Editing Free fall (section)

==In general relativity==
{{further|General relativity}}

In general relativity, an object in free fall is subject to no force and is an inertial body moving along a [[geodesics in general relativity|geodesic]]. Far away from any sources of space-time curvature, where [[spacetime]] is flat, the Newtonian theory of free fall agrees with general relativity. Otherwise the two disagree; e.g., only general relativity can account for the [[precession]] of orbits, the [[orbital decay]] or inspiral of compact [[Binary star|binaries]] due to [[gravitational waves]], and the relativity of direction ([[geodetic precession]] and [[frame dragging]]).

The experimental observation that all objects in free fall accelerate at the same rate, as noted by Galileo (1590?) and then embodied in Newton's theory as the equality of gravitational and inertial masses (1687) was later confirmed to high accuracy by modern forms of the [[Eötvös experiment]] (orig. 1885). It is the basis of the [[equivalence principle]], from which basis Einstein's theory of general relativity initially took off.