Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m8s7h Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T05:58:51.543Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

17 - Constant acceleration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2010

Get access

Summary

Did your researches with the slot at §14.14 yield the ‘important discovery’ I hinted at. Perhaps you should try again.

Revise as necessary on isovals–a minimum of §§14.1, 14.5 and 14.9. If you didn't ask yourself whether a branch of an isoval could be a world line – representing something moving on the ID universe – consider the question now.

A time-like isoval couldn't be a world line. For its slope is always shallower than 45°, and this would imply a causal influence travelling faster than light, which is impossible (§§10.10–12).

But a branch of a space-like isoval, being always steeper than 45°, could be a world line. Check with the slot that it represents something always moving slower than light. What sort of motion will it represent?

World lines of inertial observers are straight. So this curve must represent the motion of something that is non-inertial. What does ‘noninertial’ mean?

The meaning is in the definition of §5.2–which please reread. The test particle moves away.

But when there is no gravity–as we are assuming (§5.5)–an inertial observer has constant speed relative to any other inertial observer (§5.6). Therefore a non-inertial observer moves with changing speedhe is accelerated in the ordinary sense of the word. So this space-like isoval represents accelerated motion.

Note that acceleration has a quite different status from speed (§§1.1–3, 5.1–2). Speed is purely relative. But everybody can see whether an observer and his test particle stay together or move apart; and so all must agree whether he is accelerated or not.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Constant acceleration
  • Lilley
  • Book: Discovering Relativity for Yourself
  • Online publication: 15 March 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511661402.019
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Constant acceleration
  • Lilley
  • Book: Discovering Relativity for Yourself
  • Online publication: 15 March 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511661402.019
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Constant acceleration
  • Lilley
  • Book: Discovering Relativity for Yourself
  • Online publication: 15 March 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511661402.019
Available formats
×