matter, inertial frames often are taken as frames moving uniformly with respect to the fixed stars. See Inertial frame of reference for more discussion on this. Mathematical definitions Space, as understood in Newtonian mechanics, is three-dimensional and Euclidean, with a fixed orientation. It is denoted E3. If some point O in E3 is fixed and defined as an origin, the position of any point P in E3 is uniquely determined by its radius vector (the origin of this vector coincides with the point O and its end coincides with the point P). The three-dimensional linear vector space R3 is a set of all radius vectors. The space R3 is endowed with a scalar product ⟨ , ⟩. Time is a scalar which is the same in all space E3 and is denoted as t. The ordered set { t } is called a time axis. Motion (also path or trajectory) is a function r : Δ → R3 that maps a point in the interval Δ from the time axis to a position (radius vector) in R3. The above four concepts are the "well-known" objects mentioned by Isaac Newton in his Principia: I do not define time, space, place and motion, as being well known to all. Special relativity The concepts of space and time were separate in physical theory prior to the advent of special relativity theory, which connected the two and showed both to be dependent upon the reference frame's motion. In Einstein's theories, the ideas of absolute time and space were superseded by the notion of spacetime in special relativity, and curved spacetime in general relativity. Absolute simultaneity refers to the concurrence of events in time at different locations in space in a manner agreed upon in all frames of reference. The theory of relativity does not have a concept of absolute time because there is a relativity of simultaneity. An event that is simultaneous with another event in one frame of reference may be in the past or future of that event in a different frame of reference, which negates absolute simultaneity. Einstein Quoted below from his later papers, Einstein identified the term aether with "properties of space", a terminology that is not widely used. Einstein stated that in general relativity the "aether" is not absolute anymore, as the geodesic and therefore the structure of spacetime depends on the presence of matter. General relativity Special relativity