If I were in a NASA centrifuge and viewing a ping pong game in the Earth's inertial frame (neglecting coreolis forces), would the game look the same if I were in an inertial frame, and the game were being played in the centrifuge?Doc Al said:Yes, the real forces are the same in any frame. But inertial pseudo-forces only appear when viewing motion from a non-inertial frame.
Newton's Second Law states that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass. In other words, the greater the force applied to an object, the greater its acceleration will be. This law is often written as F=ma, where F is the net force, m is the mass of the object, and a is the acceleration.
An inertial frame of reference is a reference frame in which Newton's First Law (the law of inertia) holds true. This means that an object in motion will continue moving at a constant velocity unless acted upon by an external force. In other words, there are no forces acting on the object or the forces acting on the object are balanced.
An accelerating frame of reference is a reference frame in which Newton's First Law does not hold true. In this frame, an object in motion will experience a change in velocity, even in the absence of external forces. This is because the frame itself is accelerating, causing the object to appear to accelerate as well.
In an inertial frame of reference, Newton's Second Law holds true and can be used to calculate the acceleration of an object. However, in an accelerating frame of reference, an additional "fictitious" force must be taken into account in order for Newton's Second Law to hold true. This fictitious force is known as the "inertial force" or "pseudo force" and is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the acceleration of the frame.
Some real-world examples of Newton's Second Law include a car accelerating when the gas pedal is pressed, a person's body moving in the direction of a push or pull, and a ball rolling down a hill due to the force of gravity. In each of these examples, the acceleration of the object is directly proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass.