From: utzoo!decvax!duke!harpo!uwvax!doug
Newsgroups: net.misc
Title: Re: Rotating Ants Spin the Universe
Article-I.D.: uwvax.521
Posted: Sun Aug  1 11:41:54 1982
Received: Mon Aug  2 04:26:39 1982



One more thing.  The poser of the question also said that "if velocity
and acceleration are really relative..."

I think, and someone will correct me if I'm wrong, that while velocity
is certainly relative, that acceleration is not.  I think acceleration
is something that is fixed.  As a matter of fact, it is precisely the
experiment mentioned that partially verifies that:  the spinning ant
is accelerating.  We can measure that acceleration, even in the
absence of other frames of reference, by the fact that the ant experiences
a force.

Newton's laws are, for this reason, written in terms of accelerations.

doug@uwisc