PHYS 154 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Inertial Frame Of Reference, Special Relativity, Flashlight
Document Summary
Reference frame: has x,y,z axes (coordinate system) & clock. Inertia reference frame: newton"s law of inertia is valid: net force acting on a body is 0, body remains at rest or moves at constant velocity, acceleration- 0, 2: the postulates of special relativity. The relativity postulate: laws of physics are the same in every inertial reference frame: 2. The speed-of-light postulate: speed of light in a vacuum, measured in any inertial reference frame, always has the same value of c, no matter how fast the source of light and the observer are moving relative to each other. Any inertial reference frame is as good as any other for expressing the laws of physics: ex. Flashlight on moving truck is same speed as person observing and person on truck: does not matter if flashlight is moving or not, concepts. 1. time interval: length, l=lo, momentum, p=, kinetic energy, ke=m-1)= m-1, addition of velocities, vab, 3: the relativity of time: time dilation.