Inertial and Non inertial frame of reference

 Inertial and Non-inertial frame of reference

Photo by Sawyer Bengtson on Unsplash

Introduction : Inertial and Non inertial frame of reference is well understood by understanding state of motion and rest. In our day to day life we come across many experiences of accelerated motion like circular motion, where frame of reference is well understood. Frame of reference is in accordance with accelerated motion. As any state of motion or state of rest is dependent (relative)motion, it is convenient to consider frame of reference. To know or describe a motion you need to describe or define some reference. Such a reference is called a frame of reference.

Inertial Frame of reference : The system in which newton's first law of motion holds good is called as inertial frame of reference. It suggest that if there is no net force, there will be no acceleration and the object moves with constant velocity.

Eg: Consider a simple pendulum hanged on the roof of a train which is at rest. Now the pendulum is also at rest with respect to train. When the train is moving with constant velocity then the pendulum is also moving with constant velocity with 0 acceleration and train is said to be inertial frame of reference as there is no force experienced by the pendulum. As soon as train accelerate or decelerate, the pendulum experiences a force and now the frame of reference i.e train no longer remains inertial frame.

Non-inertial Frame of reference : The system in which newton's first law of motion does not holds good is called as non-inertial frame of reference. It suggest that if there is  net force, there will be an acceleration and the object moves with variable velocity.

Eg: Consider the same example given below, a simple pendulum hanged on the roof of a train which is at rest. Now the pendulum is also at rest with respect to train. i.e the system is in inertial frame but  as soon as   train accelerate or decelerate, the pendulum experiences a force and now the frame of reference i.e train no longer remains inertial frame. Thus now the train is said to be non inertial frame of reference.

<<<Linear momentum>>>│<<<Next Topic>>>

---