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Relativity, Inertia, and the Equivalence Principle Law of Inertia (Newton’s 1st Law) Formulated first by Galileo and then used by Newton as his 1st law of motion Objects at rest remain at rest… Objects in motion remain moving at constant velocity (straight line and constant speed), UNLESS …a net (unbalanced) force acts Inertia and Mass The mass of an object (in kilograms) is a direct measure of its resistance to change in motion (its “laziness”) The greater the mass, the harder it is to start it moving, or to change its motion (speed or direction) once it is moving Mass and the Large Hadron Collider One of the greatest mysteries in physics is why fundamental particles have specific masses In analogy with electromagnetic theory, the “Higgs field” was hypothesized to explain mass Higgs mechanism* Imagine a room full of physicists chatting quietly is like “empty” space filled with the Higgs field *Thanks to CERN A well-known scientist walks in, creating a disturbance as he moves across the room – attracting a cluster of admirers with each step… …this increases his resistance to movement, his “inertia” or his “mass” - just like a particle moving through the Higgs field …if a rumor crosses the room… …it creates the same kind of clustering, but this time among the scientists themselves (the clusters are like the Higgs particles) Inertial Frame of Reference An “inertial frame of reference” is one that is motionless or one that is moving at a constant velocity An accelerating reference frame is “non-inertial” First Postulate of Relativity The laws of physics are the same for all observers in constant relative motion (an inertial reference frame) Any accelerating system is non-inertial, there would be break in symmetry (a “special” direction would be established) If motion in one dimension is not acceleration, then we can consider an inertial frame along that direction – consider plane flying at constant speed… you could do experiments there as well as in this room Law of Falling Bodies All objects in a uniform gravitational field fall with the same acceleration, regardless of mass Einstein’s Principle of Equivalence The effect of a uniform gravitational field is indistinguishable from a reference frame that is accelerating at constant rate Sample problems Monkey shoot Fuzzy dice and helium balloon in car Light beam Implications of Equivalence Principle Light must be affected by gravitational field, even though light doesn’t have mass Gravity is an effect of the curvature of space and time around mass-energy