The Principle of Relativity and Optical Phenomena
摘要
WhenCastelnuovo, G. NewtonNewton, I., in his immortal Principia, posited the notions of absolute stillness and absolute motion, he was obeying the spirit of the times rather than the requirements of a logical development of mechanics. The motion of a body is determined only when we assign a second body, or system, to which that motion can refer. On the other hand, the system can change with a certain arbitrariness, without altering the laws of motion. These only state properties of relative motions, and never allow absolute motion to be characterized.