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Subject: 
Re: Relativity Question
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.geek
Date: 
Wed, 8 Nov 2000 21:27:54 GMT
Viewed: 
634 times
  
On Wed, Nov 08, 2000 at 09:20:41PM +0000, Matthew Miller wrote:
Yeah, that's what I don't get, as well. The terms "inertial" and
"noninertial" come from the britannica article, and they mean
"non-accelerating motion" and "accelerating motion". But I'm not sure how to
tell which is which without an absolute frame of reference.

acceleration _is_ absolute - you can measure it, you can tell when your
speed is constant.  you _cannot_ tell what that speed really is though.
not without a point of reference.

Or: what's the difference between a ship accelerating away from the earth,
and the earth accelerating away from the ship? Just because one happens to
have the motor....

if the earth started accelerating, everyone and everything on it will
feel it.  the motor applies the force to the ship, therefore the ship
is accelerating.  you don't speed up without a force pushing/pulling you.

--
Dan Boger / dan@peeron.com / www.peeron.com / ICQ: 1130750
<set:9133_1>:  LEGO DUPLO Farm (DACTA/DUPLO/Farm), '98, 97 pcs, 6 figs



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Relativity Question
 
(...) Ahh. Ok, that makes me feel better about things. :) (...) Yes, that makes much sense. (24 years ago, 8-Nov-00, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Relativity Question
 
(...) Yeah, that's what I don't get, as well. The terms "inertial" and "noninertial" come from the britannica article, and they mean "non-accelerating motion" and "accelerating motion". But I'm not sure how to tell which is which without an absolute (...) (24 years ago, 8-Nov-00, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)

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