Frames of Reference: The Basics

The physics department at The University of Hawaii has designed midterm exams for their college physics courses. This version deals with electricity concepts. It requires learners to calculate conversions, capacitance, and potential...

How does a lens work? A thorough video lesson addresses this question by looking at the lenses of human eyes, telescopes, and microscopes. Light waves play an important role function of each of these objects. This is the 41st lesson in...

What do waves and music have in common? It turns out they are one in the same! By applying important concepts from previous lessons in the Crash Course series, the 19th video explains the physics of music. The presenter breaks down the...

Take a look at an organized physics course. The 34-section electronic textbook covers material in AP® Physics 1 and 2. Teachers use the text to supplement lectures and have the class work through the labs. Each section contains...

Seven practice problems are presented to physics pros in this assignment. Given the wavelengths, they perform computations for emission spectra. This brief instructional activity makes an appropriate pop quiz.

Physiclips thoroughly presents mechanics concepts with animations and film clips.

Students examine the concept of frames of reference in physics: that two frames of reference, each moving with respect to the other with a constant velocity v, observe the same accelerations and therefore Newton's laws are the same in both.

In the following interactive students will begin to discuss the inertial frame of reference and the non-inertial frame of reference. They will also describe the effects of the Coriolis force.

By the end of this section, you will be able to discuss the inertial frame of reference, discuss the non-inertial frame of reference, and describe the effects of the Coriolis force.

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Relative motion is always measured with a frame of reference. Evaluate a variety of frames of reference and inertial frames to understand relative motion.