Physics 209: Notes on Special Relativity

by N. David Mermin

In working with the principle of relativity the term frame of reference is extremely useful. A frame of reference (often simply called a “frame”) is the (uniformly moving) systemintermsofwhichyouhavechosentodescribethings. Forexampleacabinattendant walks toward the front of the airplane at 2 mph in the frame of reference of the airplane. You start at the rear of the plane and want to catch up with him so you walk at 4 mph. If the plane is going at 500 mph then in the frame of reference of the ground this would be described by saying that the cabin attendant was moving forward at 502 mph, and you caught up by increasing your speed from 500 mph to 504 mph. One of the many remarkable things about relativity is how much one can learn from considerations of this apparently banal variety.

138 pages, Paperback

Published October 2, 2014

About the author

Nathaniel David Mermin (born 1935) is a solid-state physicist at Cornell University best known for the eponymous Mermin–Wagner theorem, his application of the term "Boojum" to superfluidity, and for the quote "shut up and calculate!" (in the context of the interpretation of quantum mechanics).

In 1976, Neil Ashcroft and Mermin published a textbook on solid-state physics. As a proponent of Quantum Bayesianism, Mermin described the concept in Nature.

In 2003, the journal Foundations of Physics published a bibliography of Mermin’s writing that included three books, 125 technical articles, 18 pedagogical articles, 21 general articles, 34 book reviews, and 24 "Reference Frame" articles from Physics Today.

[from Wikipedia. check the original article also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M...]