Inertial frame Definition and 127 Threads

I had a DM with @PAllen about the notion of non-standard inertial frame. Let's consider a (global) inertial frame in the context of flat spacetime. Apply now to it a general transformation of spatial coordinates alone. Such a transformation yields a frame that is no longer inertial. Although...

Hi, I was reading the Bondi k-calculus as introduced in R. d'Inverno book and Bondi k-calculus. As far as I understand, in the context of SR, the radar time coordinate from an inertial observer/clock is basically the same as the coordinate time ##t## assigned to any event from an inertial frame...

In the context of SR we know time dilation is basically the rate of change of moving clock's proper time w.r.t. the inertial frame coordinate time. It does mean that in principle the "tick events" of moving clock are compared against the time measurement of clocks Einstein's synchronizated in...

When an object is in freefall, it is in a locally inertial frame of reference. If two objects are in freefall, can their locally inertial frames of reference have different relative velocities?

So i solved this question through non inertial frame but how do i solve this through inertial frame , when i used to solve only translation question when i observed through non inertial frame the main difference was in inertial frame Fnet = 0 and in non inertial frame Fnet -ma =0 (ma being...

I have tried to solve this problem using the lagrangean approach: $$L = T - V = m((\dot r)^2 + (r \dot \theta)^2)/2 - 0 = m((\dot r)^2 + (r \delta)^2)/2 - 0 $$ The problem is that the answer i got is the right answer at the smooth rod referencial, that is, at the non inertial frame. Now we can...

In trying to understand a bit of special relativity, I want to make sure if I understand it correctly, and I came up with the following question: "Imagine you would know all forces in the universe acting upon an object, doesn't that give away the only real existing frame of reference (imagining...

Hi Angular momentum L is related to the moment of inertia (MOI) , I by L= Iω In the body-fixed frame , ie. rotating with the object then ω = 0 and so the angular momentum is zero in the body-fixed frame. Is that correct ? If i have a thin circular ring then the MOI about the centre is given by...

(a) No, a person seated inside the train compartment will not be able to tell whether the train is accelerating on a horizontal track or moving uniformly up an inclined track by observing the plumb line. (b) I am assuming that both observers are not allowed to look "out" of the boundaries of...

Let's suppose there's some platform that is rotating with angular speed omega and has a radius R. At t=0 we release some object from the border, which has an initial speed perpendicular to the radius direction with magnitude \omega R and we want to know its position at t=T with respect to the...

Hi, consider the following in the context of classic mechanics and SR. We know there exist special "frame of reference" according to free objects stay at rest or keep moving with constant uniform velocities. Suppose you single out a such reference frame according to the Newton law of inertia...

Good Morning (I see this has been discussed here, but I am more interested in two specific definitions and whether the conflict.) I had always thought that the definition of an inertial frame was: "A frame in which Newton's Laws are valid." A person has been arguing with me that the definition...

Well, make the center of the polar coordinates at the center of the turntable, so put r along the ro initial. I am well known that to someone who is rest on the turntable, the equations will be the follow: dr/dt = ro - vt If the turntable route with angular velocity w, dtheta/dt = -wt We...

Hi, reading the book "The Road to Reality" by Roger Penrose I was a bit confused about the notion of Galilean spacetime as fiber bundle (section 17.2). As explained there, each fiber over absolute time ##t## is a copy of ##\mathbf E^3## (an instance of it over each ##t##), there exist no...

As per special theory of relativity, no inertial reference frame is special! If a spaceship is moving at 100 m/s, no one can conduct an experiment to determine whether it is moving at 100 m/s or the rest of the universe is moving to the opposite direction at -100 m/s, if I understand the...

For simple circular motion it is common to resolve forces toward the centre and relate this to centripetal acceleration, provided that the current reference frame is inertial. However where would such a coordinate system be positioned? Since it requires one axis passing through the line...

This is probably common knowledge to relativity aficionados but at Example 7.3 in this paper: https://www.farmingdale.edu/faculty/peter-nolan/pdf/relativity/Ch07Rel.pdf I was surprised to read the author showing that a ship accelerating at 1g from rest for 1 hour and reaching a speed of...

I know this is a basic question, but I haven't understood deeply what a inertial frame of reference is, to be more specific, its relation with the first law of motion.

Homework Statement A high-speed centipede in S’ is 10.0 cm long measured at rest in S’. A butcher in S holds two cleavers (A and B) 9.00 cm apart (measured in S). The centipede runs at such high speed v across a chopping block that the butcher measures the length of the centipede to be 8.00 cm...

Hello all, This post is in reference to a previous homework post, found here: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/show-that-f-gamma-3-ma.338744/ That thread is closed to further replies. Probably because it's nearly 10 years old. That thread is about deriving relativistic force from the...

Einstein's equivalence principle states that: The sets of inertial frames in the real world that correspond to (portions of) the ideal set of inertial frames discussed in special relativity consist of freely falling local frames. In other words,can we say that since all the local frames are in...

A freely falling body (falling in earth) accelerates with time. However, an object inside the body remains at rest (if it was initially at rest) or moves with a constant velocity if it was initially moving with constant velocity. In other words a frame fixed to the body is an inertial frame...

Hello! The angular velocity in the non-inertial frame of a rotating body of mass m is ##\Omega## and I need to find the force acting on the body (in the non-inertial frame associated with the body). In the book they say (without any derivation, they just state it) that the force is...

Hi, I am trying to gain insight into using stationary vs. rotating coordinate frames for natural frequency calculations. I have seen many FE codes suggest that critical frequencies can be calculated differently in rotating and inertial frames, so i wanted to do a 1D calc to see for myself how...

Homework Statement I was re-reading my old Relativity book (by Rindler) and taking a look at some of the problems. He asks: Using a Minkowski diagram to establish the following result: Given two rods of rest lengths ##l_1## and ##l_2 (l_2 < l_1)##, moving along a common line with relativity...

You are launched upward inside a railway coach in a horizontal position with respect to the surface of Earth, as shown in the figure. After the launch, but while the coach is still rising, you release two ball bearings at opposite ends of the train and at rest with respect to the train. a)...

Suppose a person is standing in a bus, moving with constant velocity and then driver applied the breaks and the person standing moved forward as if something pushed him from behind Whats the reason behind this Is it because bus has become a non inertial frame and we have to add psuedo forces to...

Consider a specific reference frame (0XYZ) attached to Earth. A point (origin) being selected, coordinates are ascribed along with a vector basis. This reference is non-inertial because it is locked to Earth and the acceleration of Earth is not zero. Suppose upon rising one morning I felt...

Consider a disc being pulled by a constant force F and it is performing pure rolling. Now, the disc has a certain acceleration, point A has a acceleration in right direction and another centripetal acceleration in vertically upward direction but it has zero instantaneous velocity because of pure...

Hi everyone. So I'm going through Landau/Lifshitz book on Mechanics and I read through a topic on inertial frames. So, because we are in an inertial frame, the Lagrangian ends up only being a function of the magnitude of the velocity only (v2) Now my question to you is, how does one prove that...

Hello all, new member here. Signed up cause I am stumped by a physics problem. I am trying to size a linear actuator. Basically I have a large body that is accelerating at acceleration in x direction. I have a linear actuator aligned in the x direction that is rigidly attached to the large body...

kuruman submitted a new PF Insights post Frames of Reference: Linear Acceleration View Continue reading the Original PF Insights Post.

Homework Statement A particle is accelerated so it has a total energy of 10GeV measured in the accelerator’s rest frame. The particle's momentum is 8GeV/c in the same frame. Calculate... a.) Rest mass of the particle b.) Energy in an inertial frame in which its momentum is 6GeV/c c.) The speed...

What was the need for Lorentz transformation in pre-relativity period? Why was it necessary for the velocity of light to be invariant between different inertial frames and hence what was the need for Lorentz transformation when it was believed that velocity of light was constant with respect to...

What in the mathematics of the derivation of special relativity limits the model to inertial frames? How is an inertial frame defined in the context of the derivation?

Suppose I am observing a object in a noninertial frame from a noninertial frame , then what will happen to the forces acting on a object with respect to both the frames, frame of reference (FOR) moving uniform with inertial FOR are themselves inertial frame , does it follow the same with a FOR...

Definitions: Astronaut is A Person on Earth is B A travels to a star far away at near light speed, A would see B's time dilate. B would also see A's time dilate Twin paradox revived: What would happen if A returns to B at a very slow speed? Then both frames of reference would see each others'...

Homework Statement Plane harmonic waves of 1/p, 1/q, 1/r and 1/s are travelling, respectively, in the directions of the (non-unit) vectors (1,1,1), (1,-1,-1), (-1,1,-1) and (-1,-1,1). Show that there exists an inertial coordinate system in which they have the same frequency if and only if...

I'm trying to understand something about relativity that doesn't seem to add up. I will extend Einstein's carriage example to incorporate 4 clocks. At the beginning all these clocks are running at the same time when they are together. I put two of the clocks far away from each other (100 km...

Homework Statement $$g_o=\frac{GM}{R^2}e_R$$ where g0 is the gravitational acceleration, G = 6.67 * 10-11Nm2 /kg2 is the universal gravitational constant, M= 5.98 *1024 kg is the mass of the Earth, and R = 6.38 * 106 m its radius $$g = g_0-ω*[ω*(r+R)]$$....(8.29) where gravitational...

I'm trying to understand the relations between the existence of Coriolis force and the conservation of angular momentum. I found this explanation on Morin. I do not understand the two highlighted parts. In particular it seems that Coriolis force is there to change the angular momentum of the...

Studying the acceleration expressed in polar coordinates I came up with this doubt: is this frame to be considered inertial or non inertial? (\ddot r - r\dot{\varphi}^2)\hat{\mathbf r} + (2\dot r \dot\varphi+r\ddot{\varphi}) \hat{\boldsymbol{\varphi}} (1) I do not understand what is the...

is space an inertial or non inertial frame of reference?

And a cartesian axis system in physics? I thought about that and my answer is that a cartesian axis system is the same as a inertial frame of reference, is that true?

inertial frame is one in which isolated particle has constant velocity but is there actually any "isolated particle " ? how then can frame be defined as or not being inertial ? or is it that - for a system in which acceleration due to external forces is equal for all members , the frame of...

Hello, in general relativity we introduce local inertial frames to be such frames where the laws of special relativity holds. Let ξα the coordinates in the local inertial frame, so we get ds²=ηαβdξαdξβ. If we switch the frame of reference to coordinates xμ : ξα=ξα(x0,x1,x2,x3) and with...

I'm 11 and I'm trying understand what Special Relativity is about. How many different inertial frames of reference do we have and what are they?? I know what it means.

I had a little thought experiment, in which there are two objects with the same masses near each other (same height) on freefall. If I set up a point that is on an instant besides the two masses and call it the center of torque, I get that the torque produced by the nearest one's weight is...

There is a lot of discussion on this but I still have doubts. Can someone help clarify and point me to correct thread? Object free falls due to gravity (acceleration) so the frame should be non inertial for outside observer. But object does not experience pseudo force in free fall so it may be...

If the speed of light is constant in any inertial frame then how do we measure a red shift or blue shift or why?