The inertial-frames tag has no wiki summary.
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Can an “absolute” frame of reference be determined by measuring the compression of light?
General relativity tells us that there is no absolute frame of reference (actually, it tells us that all frames are relative, which is close but not the same as there is no absolute frame).
Special ...
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1answer
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What happens to speed and frequency of a light beam moving in transparent medium when observed from different inertial frame of reference?
Suppose a transparent medium where speed of light is $c/n$, an inertial frame of reference $K$ which is stationary relatively to the medium and an inertial frame of reference $K'$ which is moving ...
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What are the mechanics by which Time Dilation and Length Contraction occur?
What are the mechanics of time dilation and length contraction? Going beyond the mathematical equations involving light and the "speed limit of the universe", what is observed is merely a phenomenon ...
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2answers
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Inertial and non inertial frames of references
I've heard from a physics professor that there's no stationary platform to observe and analyze a body in motion.Why did he mention that? Is it because even seemingly stationary objects like a parked ...
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3answers
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How to take into account the reference frames with the revolution and rotation of the Earth in OPERA's superluminal neutrinos?
Since the Earth is moving around the Sun, which is moving around Milky Way, etc... What reference frame is used for the complete motion of the begin/end points (which are non-inertial right?)?
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Argument for proving Earth-Centered Earth-Fixed (ECEF) reference frame is non-inertial
Today I heard an argument to prove that the Earth-Centered Earth-Fixed (ECEF) reference frame is non-inertial. It seriously doesn't make any sense to me but I also heard that same argument was made by ...
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4answers
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What does a frame of reference mean in terms of manifolds?
Because of my mathematical background, I've been finding it hard to relate the physics-talk I've been reading, with mathematical objects.
In (say special) relativity, we have a Lorentzian manifold, ...
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2answers
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Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and its relation to Inertial Frames
We know that the CMB is isotropic when viewed outside of the spinning and revolving earth.
Is it homogeneous?
Can we relate the CMB to an inertial frame in the Newtonian sense (in which space and ...
4
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2answers
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Landau's ambiguous statement about the existence of inertial frames
Landau writes "It is found, however, that a frame of reference can always be chosen in
which space is homogeneous and isotropic and time is homogeneous."
Does he mean that we can prove the existence ...
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11answers
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Why do we say that the earth moves around the sun?
In history we are taught that the Catholic Church was wrong, because the Sun does not move around the Earth, instead the Earth moves around the Sun.
But then in physics we learn that movement is ...
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1answer
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equivalence principle and nontrivial compactifications
it is commonly argued that the equivalence principle implies that everything must fall locally in the same direction, because any local variation of accelerations in a small enough neighbourhood is ...
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8answers
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Is Mach's Principle Wrong?
This question was prompted by another question about a paper by Woodward (not mine). IMO Mach's principle
is very problematic (?wrong) thinking. Mach was obviously influenced by Leibniz. Empty space ...
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4answers
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Newton's Bucket
Newton's Bucket
This thought experiment is originally due to Sir Isaac Newton. We have a sphere of water floating freely in an opaque box in intergalactic space, held together by surface tension and ...
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What determines which frames are inertial frames?
I understand that you can (in principle) measure whether "free particles" (no forces) experience accelerations in order to tell whether a frame is inertial. But fundamentally, what determines which ...
