The equivalence principle as fluid kinematics

The Equivalence Principle is the observed fact that all objects fall at the same rate in a gravitational field, whatever their mass or composition. Standard physics treats it as the equality of inertial and gravitational mass, and General Relativity explains it as objects following curved spacetime. RSI holds that it is the necessary result of a world built of waves in one medium.

In RSI every particle is a knot tied out of the Eternal Consonance, a pattern of waves circulating at the speed of light. A knot falls because the medium is slacker lower down, so its waves run slower on its lower side and it turns toward the center. That acceleration depends only on how the medium's rhythm changes from place to place. It contains nothing about the knot itself. A proton in a feather and a proton in a lead sphere turn at the same rate, and a lead sphere is simply more knots doing the same thing. The MICROSCOPE satellite confirmed in 2022 that different materials fall alike to about one part in 10¹⁵.

A falling object therefore feels no force: every part of it turns at the same rate, so nothing is strained. Weight is felt only when the ground stops an object from falling, pressing back on its knots.

Light is different in one way. It crosses space at full speed, so it responds both to the slower rhythm and, equally, to the shrinking of rulers near a mass. That is why light bends twice as much as Newton's gravity alone would predict, as measured at the Sun.