Thought Experiment on ToR postulate-1

[kannank]

'All laws of physics hold good in all inertial frames of reference.'

observer A - standing still on earth
observer B - in jetplane-1 flying at mach-2

jetplane-2 is moving at mach-1 co-directional to jetplane-1.

A observes in accordance with Newton's 3rd law.

B observes, fuel level going down in jet-2, exhaust moving out from the tail. But jetplane-1 is moving backwards for him, which is not in accordance with 3rd law.

Again I know I am missing something here. Any clue what it is?

thanks.

 

[jtbell]

B observes that jetplane-2 is being blown backwards by the air which is rushing past him (B) at mach-2. Jetplane-2 is burning fuel in a half-successful attempt to make forward progress against this tremendous headwind.

 

[kannank]

I'm sorry. this sort of an invalid answer. We can experiment this in vacuum as well.

 

[Parlyne]

If you did this in vacuum, both "planes," if actively burning fuel, would be accelerating, making them non-inertial frames, in which observers will necessarily observe some sort of fictitious forces.

 

[kannank]

that answers me. Wrong assumption. Thank you.