Physics 197 Lecture 21: Non-Inertial Frames

• School: WUSTL
• Department: Physics
• Course: Physics 197
• Professor: Ferrar

Document Summary

The rst step is to describe mathematically how observations in one reference frame. S are linked to observations in another frame s". If we orient these frames" axes so that they point in the same direction in space, then a straightforward argument yields the following transformation equations. Newton"s rst law states than a isolated object has zero acceleration. An inertial reference frame is a frame in which newton"s rst law is observed to hold. In non-inertial reference frames, violation of the rst law means that none of newton"s laws apply. We can test whether a frame is inertial by placing an object at rest relative to that frame, isolating it from external effects, and seeing whether it remains at rest. If such rst law detectors establish that frame s is inertial, then another frame s" will also be inertial if and only if its acceleration vector a relative to s is zero.