Re: [Phys-l] Inertial frame of reference

[John Mallinckrodt <ajm@csupomona.edu>]

Oops.  I do now see that rotation sensing was the only purpose of the  
optical tracking system and that you were still effectively using  
Newton's first law to finish the job.  It's worth noting, however,  
that your designs will detect general relativistic ("freefall")  
inertial frames, not Newtonian inertial frames.

John Mallinckrodt
Cal Poly Pomona

On Jul 29, 2009, at 11:16 AM, John Mallinckrodt wrote:

> On Jul 29, 2009, at 10:03 AM, Brian Whatcott wrote:
>
> > Here's an operational definition ...
> >
> > For space-born applications: substitute two optical tracking
> > telescopes
> > whose axes are not collinear [ or - reasonably orthogonal] for the
> > three
> > rotation sensors. The telescopes need to fix any star on their
> > respective optical axis for the time period of interest.
>
> Hmm.  Again, I don't see how one can use the idea of fixed stars in
> any practical scheme to determine the inertial nature of a platform.
> This scheme won't do anything but sense rotation.
>
> John Mallinckrodt
> Cal Poly Pomona
>
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