Julian Barbour (/ˈbɑːrbər/; born 1937) is a British physicist with research interests in quantum gravity and the history of science.
In standard analytical dynamics a system's future evolution can be determined from a state consisting of particle positions and momenta (or instantaneous velocities).
Barbour believes that the Machian approach eschews the momenta/instantaneous velocities, which are not directly observable, and so needs more than one "snapshot" consisting of positions only.
[3] Along with physicist Bruno Bertotti, Barbour developed a technique called "best matching" for deriving gravitational equations directly from astronomical measurements of objects' spatial relations with each other.
Published in 1982, the method describes gravitational effects as accurately as Einstein's general relativity, but without the need for a "background" grid of spacetime.
[8]In the October 1974 United Kingdom general election, Barbour stood as an Independent English Nationalist candidate in Banbury,[9] receiving 547 votes.