Inertial Definition and 486 Threads

under which conditions we could say that the same experiment is performed in different inertial reference frames. I have formulated for myself the following answer: We say that observers from two inertial reference frames perform the same experiment if the physical quantities they measure are...

What if inertial mass did NOT equal gravitational mass? How would our normal daily existence be different? Most interesting and creative answer wins ! [Edit: This is intended to be a fun question to answer, but I'm hoping to learn something quite serious from it. The force of...

I have had this idea in my head for years and I want to know once and for all if it will work or not. I understand that a flywheel gains in mass when it spins. If this is true, is my thinking below correct? Any feedback would be appreciated! Inertial Mass Propulsion: I am going to try to...

It's not that I don't believe that all i.r.f.'s are on an equal footing, it's just that I can't seem to get that to square with the following thought experiment, undoubtedly 'cause I'm getting lost in my own undies here, and I need help getting a handle on this. Suppose you have a universe...

Hi, Please help me, I can't make head or tail of the concept of an inertial reference frame. What is an inertial reference frame? In what fundamental way does it differ from a noninertial reference frame if all motion is relative? Thanks for your help. Molu

Energy is not an invariant quantity between different frames of reference. For example a particle having a kinetic energy in one frame has a zero kinetic energy in another frame. But what about interaction energy? If I know the interaction energy between 2 particles in one frame, how can I...

What is used to define an inertial frame in special relativity? Do I need to take one of the postulates as defining an inertial frame? What is bothering me is that I used to use Newton\'s first law to define inertial frames (a freely moving object will have a constant velocity). This can...

A first spaceship S1 departs from Earth and quickly accelerates to a velocity V = c/2. S1 travels the shortest path (dead heading) toward a distant planet Alpha so that it arrives in 20 years as measured by a clock on S1. One year after S1 is launched from Earth as measured by a clock on the...

Sir, A simple pendulum has a length L. The inertial and gravitational masses of the bob are m1 and m2 respectively. Then the time period of the simple pendulum is given by T = 2(pie)[m1L/m2g]^(1/2) {Read as 2 pie root m one L by m two g) My question is that the...

hi, in the case of elastic collision of two balls in constant speeds, if we took the origin in the center of of one of the balls, so the speed of the origin ball will be always zero, and the second ball will has the speed of v befor the collision and -v after the collision. so how the...

when I read what inertial frames I understand and it make sense but unfortunately when I try to apply what I understood on that question ,I can't illustrate these frames. Please help. question is that: I am standing on a level floor at the origine of an inertial frame ( S) and kick a...

When a canon shoots a ball straight up (one dimension), the ball only accelerates as long as the nongravitational force of the canon acts on it. After that, the ball decelerates in the gravity field until the point it turns back and accelerates in the opposite direction as it falls back on...

Locally inertial coordintates in GR refer to spacetime, not only to space, right? Are they only defined for events, for spacetime points, so that when a particle is freely falling it passes through infinitely many such locally lorentz frames? But if so, how can we say that the particle runs...

I asked one of the professors in the nuclear engineering department recently how inertial fusion could be a viable energy source if so little matter was fused. He told me that I would be suprised and said that I should do the calculation myself. I found the volume of the pellet, but now I have...

Can anyone help me out? :smile: The top has a moment of inertia of 0:0002 kg.m2 and is initially at rest. It is free to rotate about a stationary axis AA'. A string, wrapped around a peg along the axis of the top, is pulled in such a manner as to maintain a constant tension of...

Figure 10-43 shows particles 1 and 2, each of mass m, attached to the ends of a rigid massless rod of length L1 + L2, with L1 = 19 cm and L2 = 79 cm. The rod is held horizontally on the fulcrum and then released. a.What is the magnitude of the initial acceleration of particle 1? b.What is...

Are you in inertial frames? hi, today my friend ask me 2 simple questions, too shame i cannot answer him...so i post it here: is the classroom an inertial system ?? Earth is rotating around the sun - so ...can still consider as inertial ? 2. If u working in laboratory to find so physics...

and is the momentum of a particle the same in all inertial frames? Thanks for any help

Ok, in my Physics 11 H class we did a lab with an inertial disk (a disk with a hub in the center, a string is attached to the hub like a huge half a yoyo where the yoyo is stationary and weights are the fingers falling down) and i need to be able to calculate the tension in the string for...

Ok we just did a lab on measuring the inertial mass. This is going to be really hard for me to explain but i'll try. Anyways here's the problem the gravitation masses are given to us.The are 100g, 200g, 300g and 400g. We also have to use ticker tape and we ended up finding the acceleration by...

today my dynamics lecturer illustrated a situation to us where energy did not appear to be conserved. The situation involves observing the motion of a mass sliding down a slope, height 'h' above the ground from rest initially in the rest frame, we see; initially, PE = mgh KE = 0...

gravitons ?? is the inertial mass proportinal to the gravitational mass in the graviton theory of gravitation ? I ask this because I can see easily how GR imply that the two masses must be equal since spacetime curvature acts at everypoint in the body. But with gravitons I can't understand how...

my homework problem deals w/ rotation in x-y plane. so the tensor is only 2d. inertial tensor still seems obscure to me... my question for now is purely mathematical. assuming the basis are (x,y). I calculated the components of I, is the following correct? I_{xx} = m_i y_{i}^{2} I_{yy} = m_i...

What is the speed of light measured the same by all inertial observers?

i've just started studying these but unfortunatley I've been unable to get my hands on the textbook, and my lecturer is... not that great :frown: Could somebody explain what these are to me? I have little to no idea about them as of now... maybe a few sample questions too? That would be a...

Could someone explain me in detail the differences between an inertial reference frame and a non-inertial reference frame? Are inertial frames restricted to Euclidean space?

dear friends, i have one problem regarding the inertial frames.it is said that freely falling elevator satisfies the above property.if there are two particles inside the elevator the distance betn. them will remain same as long as the distance is small.but when the distance betn. the paricles...

1) Which object provides an inertial frame of reference? a. the tip of the moving second hand of a clock b. a rock thrown vertically upward c. a pendulum swinging with no air resistance d. a skydiver falling at terminal velocity At first I thought c might be correct, but now I am...

how do you determine if something is a proper inertial frame of reference? the Earth is but a car isnt? you can feel a car accelerate, even though you are in it, but you can't feel the Earth accelerate as it changes directions in its orbit.. is there a poitn after which you don't feel...

I can make a local inertial reference frame in a gravitational field by creating a frame that is small but close to the source of curvature of space-time. Alternatively I can make a local inertial reference frame by creating a frame that is large but a long distance from the source of curvature...

Suppose 2 inertial frames with relative relativistic velocities. To discuss phenomena in other frame, we need to use Lorentz Transform for length and time. I got question: do we have to also use LT to talk about permittivity and permeability of other IRF? This seems strange. Permittivity has...

I wasn't sure whether to post this in the classical or relativity section. While pondering something I found an embarrassing gap in my knowledge. I can't quite get my head around this problem and I need a fresh perspective. Consider two beams of electrons moving parallel to each other. The...

I am not really sure I have the concept of an inertial reference frame down, can anyone help me?

There are various definitions of an inertial reference frame out there, but only one is really accepted by the physics community. In some places, you will see an inertial reference frame defined as a a reference frame in which Newton's law of inertia is valid. In some places, you will see...

What's the difference between inertial mass and gravitational mass?

I was wondering if anyone out there knows how to do Exercise 5.4 on page 159 of "Gravitation," by Misner, Thorne and Wheeler? It goes like this - let d^jk = Kronecker delta Consider a stressed medium in motion with ordinary velocity |v|<<1 with respect to a specific Lorentz frame (a) Show...