4/6/16 NPTEL :: Basic courses(Sem 1 and 2) - Engineering Physics I (Theory)

Theory of Relativity - Lecture-1 Print this page

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2.Frames of References :

When someone say 'the bus is moving', we would be certain that what is being described is a change of position of
bus with respect to earth's surface or any building, tree etc which are fixed to the earth. We accept the local
surroundings - a collection of objects attached to earth and therefore at rest relative to each other as our frame of
reference. It is clear that the choice of particular frame of reference is just a matter of convenience. It is often helpful
to use a frame of reference in which the description of motion is simplest. Within a frame of reference, we set up a
coordinate system, which is used to manage the position of an object. To specify the position of any object, we use
three numbers. The choice of number is determined by the type of coordinate system we use. The generally used
coordinate systems are rectangular coordinates (x, y, z), spherical polar coordinates ( ) and cylindrical
coordinates ( ).

Inertial Frame and Galilean Transformation:

The reference frames, which we described earlier such as earth, buildings, trees, etc., are called inertial frames.
Here an object remains at rest if it is not influenced by any other forces i.e. forces arising from its interaction with
other objects. Imagine a football kept on a playground, the ball remains at rest unless you kick or pick the ball (in
the absence of wind). Here, the playground can be taken as an inertial frame. If one inertial frame is identified, then
any other frame moving with constant velocity with respect to inertial frame is also inertial. This argument implies
that all un-accelerated frames constitute the class of inertial frames.

All inertial frames are equivalent in the sense that any dynamical experiment gives same result in all these frames.
Both the values of force and acceleration for an object remain same when we go from one frame to another.

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