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Spaceship A and spaceship C are travelling away from each other in space at a constant velocity. Spaceship A fires its rocket boosters starts accelerating forwards in the direction of its original motion and spaceship C remains at its original velocity in its original direction of motion. Observers in Spaceship A (the accelerating spaceship) will see spaceship C accelerating away from them and conclude that people in that spacecraft will experience a fictitious force as they are accelerating (and because motion is relative).

But his makes no sense as spaceship C never actually accelerates via rocket boosters.

Could someone please explain this, thanks!

Isaac Greene
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1 Answers1

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Observers in spaceship A can measure their own proper acceleration and conclude that they are the ones that are accelerating, not those in spaceship C. Acceleration is not relative: all inertial observers agree that accelerated objects are accelerating and can compute the proper acceleration, which is a Lorentz invariant.

Chris
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  • I don't think it's true that acceleration is not relative. Perhaps the correct statement would be "Proper acceleration is not relative". – quant Feb 03 '21 at 22:55