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In classical physics and special relativity, an inertial frame of reference (also called an inertial space or a Galilean reference frame) is a frame of reference in which objects exhibit inertia: they remain at rest or in uniform motion relative to the frame until acted upon by external forces. In such a frame the laws of nature can be observed ...
In physics and astronomy, a frame of reference (or reference frame) is an abstract coordinate system, whose origin, orientation, and scale have been specified in physical space. It is based on a set of reference points , defined as geometric points whose position is identified both mathematically (with numerical coordinate values) and ...
Special relativity predicts that an observer in an inertial reference frame does not see objects he would describe as moving faster than the speed of light. However, in the non-inertial reference frame of Earth, treating a spot on the Earth as a fixed point, the stars are observed to move in the sky, circling once about the Earth per day. Since ...
An inertial frame is a reference frame in relative uniform motion to absolute space. All inertial frames share a universal time. Galilean relativity can be shown as follows. Consider two inertial frames S and S' . A physical event in S will have position coordinates r = (x, y, z) and time t in S, and r' = (x' , y' , z' ) and time t' in S' .
An inertial reference frame (or inertial frame in short) is a frame in which all the physical laws hold. For instance, in a rotating reference frame, Newton's laws have to be modified because there is an extra Coriolis force (such frame is an example of non-inertial frame). Here, "rotating" means "rotating with respect to some inertial frame".
The center of momentum frame is defined as the inertial frame in which the sum of the linear momenta of all particles is equal to 0. Let S denote the laboratory reference system and S′ denote the center-of-momentum reference frame. Using a Galilean transformation, the particle velocity in S′ is
Given two inertial or rotated frames of reference, a four-vector is defined as a quantity which transforms according to the Lorentz transformation matrix Λ: ′ =. In index notation, the contravariant and covariant components transform according to, respectively: ′ =, ′ = in which the matrix Λ has components Λ μ ν in row μ and column ν, and the matrix (Λ −1) T has components Λ ...
The inertial frame in which the momenta of all particles sums to zero is called the center of momentum frame. In this special frame, the relativistic energy–momentum equation has p = 0, and thus gives the invariant mass of the system as merely the total energy of all parts of the system, divided by c 2