Question

Is earth an inertial frame of reference? how?

Answer 1

an inertial frame of referece is defined as a cordinate system in which the law of inertia is valid.thats the body at rest remains at rest unless an unbalanced force produces acceleration in it.if we place a body upon earth it remains at rest unless an unbalanced force is applied upon it .this observation shows that earth may be considered as an inertial frame of refrence.when a moving car is suddenly stopped,then acceration produce which is in non-inertial frame of reference.earth is ratating and revolving and hence it is not an inertial frame but often be treated as an inertial frame without serious error bcoz of very small acceleration

Answer 2

@asmagul, do you mean earth has small accl. towards sun.

Answer 3

The earth is almost an inertial frame of reference. A brief explanation can be found here:
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/jw/module1_Inertial.htm

Answer 4

small acceleration by frictional forces like air friction that retards a moving car

Answer 5

does the accl. of earth toward's sunn not sufficient to make it quite non inertial frame

Answer 6

yes u r right.when a body moves in a circular path it gets accelerated, so when an object throw to the space,at a particular velocity,it orbits earth as being acelerated

Answer 7

The gravitational effects of the Moon and the Sun (also the cause of the tides) have a very small effect on the apparent strength of Earth's gravity.earth'acceleration is its gravity

Answer 8

u didn't got that, i was saying that if the sun attracts earth then earth gets accelerated then how can earth be an inertial frame

Answer 9

u r now looking at sun' reference frame which may be inertial

Answer 10

in earth's frame of reference we observe within earth

Answer 11

The earth's orbit is a perpendicular motion to the gravitational force of the sun. If the earth slowed, it would fall towards the sun, if it slowed enough, it would fall into the sun. If it sped up, it would get more distant from the sun. If it sped up enough, it would have the escape velocity to escape the solar system.

Answer 12

an inertial refrence frame is one in which laws of motion is valid. Now for a person on earth the relative motion is 0 so for him the laws of motion is applicable . So validity of refrence frame depends on the observer

Answer 13

Earth is an inertial frame of reference up to a certain point:
It depends how long your experiment lasts and how far it goes.

Some experiments show that Earth is not strictly inertial: this is a proof that Earth is rotating about its axis. Those are Foucault's pendulum and East deflection of free fall.

This has nothing to do with the Earth orbiting the Sun.

Answer 14

@asmagul, please make me clear thatt a noninertial frame is a frame which has net accl. isn't it??

Answer 15

yes u r right

Answer 16

and earth too has a net accl. towards sun, am i right.....

Answer 17

no its tooooo small so we neglect it but sun do as earth revolves around sun

Answer 18

can you prove that please please please

Answer 19

this is an example from a problem......

Problem:
The earth's orbit (assumed circular) around the sun is 1.5e11 m in radius, and it makes this orbit once a year. What is the centripetal acceleration of the earth?

Equations:
a = (v^2) / r
T = (2*pi*r) / v

My work:
T = (2*pi*r) / v;

1 year = (365 days / 1 year)*(24 hours / 1 day)*(60 mins / 1 day)*(60 secs / 1 min) = 3.1536e7 s;

3.1536e7 s = (2*pi*1.5e11 m) / v;
algebraically rearranged is: v = (2*pi*1.5e11 m) / (3.1536e7 s)
v = 29885.8 m/s

a = (v^2) / r;

a = ((29885.8 m/s)^2) / (1.5e11 m);
a = 0.005954 m/s^2

Answer 20

asmagul is right.
What makes Earth (the solid) a non inertial frame is its rotation about its axis, not its overall motion around the Sun.