- #1
- 1
- 0
Does the principle of invariant light speed still hold in a non Inertial frame of reference?
Thank you!
Thank you!
I thought that it held locally since any region of spacetime is locally flat.
So the claim that the speed of light is invariant "locally" in SR doesn't really mean anything, unless you explain what you mean of course.
If we use the "proper reference frame" of an accelerating observer (i.e. the coordinate system constructed using the standard synchronization procedure), the coordinate speed of light emitted by the observer will depend on a lot of different things, but if he emits the light at the origin of his coordinates, it will at least start out with speed c. I guess that's one thing we could mean by "holds locally" (but I'd rather not use phrases like that).
I don't see why "non-inertial frame of reference" implies flat spacetime. Am I not right now in a non-inertial frame of reference (I'm not freefalling as I type) in a spacetime that is curved?The question is about Minkowski spacetime, which is globally flat.
I thought that it held locally since any region of spacetime is locally flat.
By "locally" I just meant "nearby" - in the sense that the surface of a sphere is flat if one looks at a small enough piece of it. Maybe I used the term inappropriately.