A local inertial frame of reference rocks. A little later

Dennis Montoya

Dennis Montoya

Answered question

2022-05-08

A local inertial frame of reference rocks. A little later it is said that Lorentz frames rock. Are they identical or is one a special case of the other?

Answer & Explanation

taweirrvb

taweirrvb

Beginner2022-05-09Added 21 answers

The name of these terms speak to their meanings.
1. Local inertial frames are local, meaning that they are only approximately inertial in a small region of spacetime. For example, the free-falling frame near our earth is roughly inertial close to the surface of earth, but becomes curved farther away.
2. Lorentz frames are defined as frames that preserve the Minkowski metric diag(-1,1,1,1). These frames are globally inertial, flat across the entirety of spacetime.
So yeah these two frames are treated as equivalent locally, but different globally.

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