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5: Relative Motion

  • Page ID
    33375
  • \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

    This topic is absolutely essential for clarifying many common misunderstandings about physics, including inertial forces (centrifugal force, Coriolis force, etc.). We will not dive deep into inertial forces because the book only focuses on kinematics, but this chapter will allow for a better understanding of the same. The topic is actually quite intuitive, and requires just a little bit of thinking and visualization to grasp. An idea of vector math will be useful here.

    ground-frame.gif
    Ground(Absolute) reference frame
    car-frame.gif
     Car reference frame

    Note: For those of you who have read about Einstein's theories of relativity, (i) Good for you! This curiosity is essential for learning any topic. (ii) We will ignore all relativistic effects and assume that there exists a preferred frame of reference. This assumption holds true for daily phenomenon.


    5: Relative Motion is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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