1 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science
thank you for your answer. it is just not intuitive for me that you can distinguish between acceleration/rotation and no acceleration/rotation without any reference system:
you can't tell if you are moving in a translation without reference. in contrast you can tell that you are in a rotation. Is it just a 'property of space' i have to accept or is there any deeper reason.
Comment by Weed_O_Whirler at 22/06/2022 at 19:28 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
The general rule is- you can't sense velocities without a reference frame, but you can sense accelerations. So, you're in the back of a semi truck, no windows, moving down a smooth road. You can't tell if you are driving at 100 km/h or sitting still, nothing is different. But you can tell if the truck is traveling at a constant speed (or even no speed), or accelerating. When the truck accelerates, you will feel like you're getting pushed towards the back of the truck. Or even if the truck maintains a constant speed, but goes around a corner (this is like your spinning example) you will feel like you're being pushed to the side of the truck.
Velocities are all relative, cannot be sensed. Accelerations are caused by forces, can be sensed.