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reference frame

Already in special relativity, motion is relative, and whenever there is talk about a moving clock, one must give the additional information: Moving relative to whom or what? Such a “whom or what”, in other words: An object together with a recipe to determine locations relative to that object and to measure time, is called a reference frame.

In special relativity, there exists a special and very important class of reference frame, so-called inertial reference frames, in short: inertial frames.

Definitioner

time

It is a fact of life that not all events in our universe happen concurrently - instead, there is a certain order. Defining a time coordinate or defining time, the way physicists do it, is to define a prescription to associate with each event a number so as to reflect that order - if event B happens after event A, then the number associated with B should be larger than that associated with A. The first step of this definition is to construct a clock: Choose a simple process that repeats regularly. (What is "regular"? Luckily, in our universe, all elementary processes such as a swinging pendulum, the oscillations of atoms or of electronic circuits lead to the same concept of regularity.) As a second step, install a counter: A mechanism that, with every repetition of the chosen process, raises the count by one. With this definition, one can at least assign a time (the numerical value of the counter) to events happening at location of the clock. For events at different locations, an additional definition is necessary: One needs to define simultaneity. After all, the statement that some far-away event A happens at 12 o'clock is the same as saying that event A and "our clock counter shows 12:00:00" are simultaneous. The how and why of defining simultaneity - a centre-piece of Einstein's special theory of relativity - are described in the spotlight topic Defining "now". With all these preparations, physicists can, in principle, assign a time coordinate value ("a time") to any possible events, and describes how fast or how slow processes happen, compared to that time coordinate.

special relativity

Albert Einstein's theory of the fundamentals of space, time, and movement (but not gravity). For a brief introduction, check out the chapter Special relativity of Elementary Einstein. Selected aspects of special relativity are described in the category Special relativity of our Spotlights on relativity.

reference frame

Already in special relativity, motion is relative, and whenever there is talk about a moving clock, one must give the additional information: Moving relative to whom or what? Such a "whom or what", in other words: An object together with a recipe to determine locations relative to that object and to measure time, is called a reference frame.

In special relativity, there exists a special and very important class of reference frame, so-called inertial reference frames, in short: inertial frames.

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reference frame

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