JOSHUA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE STUDIES

15-C, Millat Colony, KM Road, Pathal Kudua, Ranchi-834001,

Jharkhand
+91-9334458092, +91-9431906855, +91-9546459434, +91-
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”
Proverbs 1:7
Theory of Relativity
Classical Concept of Space, Time and Mass in Newtonian Mechanics
Introduction:
Classical mechanics was formulated by Newton and Galileo. It is based on the Newton’s Three Laws of Motion:
a. The Law of Inertia
b. The Law of Force
c. The Law of Action & Reaction
It was the first branch of physics which was formulated in a complete set of Mathematical Laws and was regarded to be most
accurate until the development of the Special Theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein in 1905, which is today known as
Relativistic Mechanics.
The development of the mechanics needed the concepts of the three fundamental quantities viz., ‘length or space’, ‘mass’ and
‘time’.
Discussion of space: Physics which is directly concerned only with the measurement of space reduced the study of space to the
measurement of length i.e. the distance between the two points in space. According to Newton, ‘Space is absolute by its very
nature remaining the same and immobile without relation to anything external.’ This means to say that the length of an object
independent of the conditions under which it is measured such as the position or motion of the object or the observer. Hence, this
concept of absolute space led to the following two useful results-
i. A fixed frame of reference by which the position or motion of any object in the space can be determined
ii. The constancy of the geometrical form (cubical spherical etc.) of an object, independent of position or state of
motion of the object or the observer.
Discussion of time: Physics which deals with the measurement of time uses the method of comparing different but simultaneous
phenomena, some of which usually exhibit periodic motion; e.g., clock measuring time are compared to and regulated by the
periodic motion of the earth. According to Newton, time is absolute, “by its very nature flowing uniformly without reference to
anything external.” Hence there is a universal time flowing at constant rate unaffected by the motion or position of the objects and
observer. This implies in the first place that the interval of time between two events has the same value for all observers, whatever
be their position or motion, and secondly that if two events are simultaneous for all, irrespective of their position or motion,
which means, in other words that simultaneity is absolute.
Discussion of mass: In Physics, the study of mass consists in the measurement of mass, which can be done in different ways, viz.
by gravitational force, by determining the volume an density of the body whose mass is required, in mechanics, mass is given by
two ratio between the force acting on the body and the acceleration thereby acquired. We also know that according to Newton’s
second law of motion, “The force is proportional to the change of momentum, it produces, implies that the mass of a body is
absolute and constant, independent of the motion of the body and observer.”
Conclusion: From the above discussion we see that the observations of the two observers regarding mass, length and time were
supposed to agree even under their different states of Observations. But Newton stated that translatory motion could be detected
only when referred to material bodies and that the choice of the reference body was also limited by the law of inertia. According
to this law only those bodies could be taken as reference bodies which are not acted upon by any external forces. Thus the laws of
Classical Mechanics are true only when reffred to inertial bodies or inertial reference systems.
Inertial Frame of Reference: Newton’s first law of motion states that “A body at rest mains at rest and a body in motion
continues with constant velocity in a straight line unless an external force is applied on the body.”
Motion of the body has no meaning unless it described w.r.t. some well-defined co-ordinate system or frame of reference relative
of which the velocity of the body is measured, i.e. we must choose a meaningful co-ordinate system by which the motion of the
body may be described. The choice of reference systems, otherwise unlimited, is made so as to make the description f the
phenomenon simpler, “such as laboratory system for measurements in a laboratory and heliocentric frame for astronomical
measurements. Having chosen the reference system, the choice of particular co-ordinate system to be made out of various co-
ordinate systems such as Cartesian, Polar, Spherical Polar, Curvilinear etc. This is made in such a way that the mathematical
equations describing the phenomenon assume a very simple form in the co-ordinate system. As we know that Cartesian Co-
ordinate is simplest of all co-ordinates. In this system, for complex specification of any phenomenon we need three position co-
ordinate (x,y,z) and one time co-ordinate (t) i.e. in all four co-ordinates are needed.
There are two types of frame of reference:
(i) The frames with respect to which an un-accelerated body is un-accelerated i.e. the state of rest.
(ii) The frames with respect to which an un-accelerated body is accelerated.
The frames w.r.t. which as accelerated body appears un-accelerated are inertial frames i.e. the frames which are at rest or in
uniform translatory motion relative to one another are inertial frames.
Let’s consider a co-ordinate system relative to which the co-ordinate of a body in motion are x, y, z. These co-ordinates x, y, z are
functions of time t as the body is not acted by any external force it is moving with a constant velocity. So according to Newton’s
First Law,

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 JOSHUA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE STUDIES
15-C, Millat Colony, KM Road, Pathal Kudua, Ranchi-834001,
Jharkhand
+91-9334458092, +91-9431906855, +91-9546459434, +91-
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”
Proverbs 1:7
2 2 2
d x d y d z
2
=0 , 2 =0 , 2 =0
dt dt dt
dx dy dz
⇒ =u , =v , =w
dt dt dt
Where u, v, w are velocity components in x, y, z direction respectively. This is Newton’s First Law of inertia. This type of co-
ordinate system is called inertial frame.
Hence an Inertial frame of reference is one in which Newton’s first law of motion is true.
The frames relative to which an un-accelerated body appears accelerated are called non-inertial frames. In other words, the
accelerated frames are non-inertial.
Example:

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