PARADIGMS IN PHYSICS: PARADIGM 9
Reference Frames

Textbooks

• (TM) Thornton & Marion, Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems, 5th ed., Brooks/Cole, 2004.
• (GE) Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics, 3rd ed., Prentice Hall, 1999.
• (TD) Dray, The Geometry of Special Relativity, course notes handout, 2002.

Other Class Notes

• Rotations in the Plane
• Rotations in Space
• The Foucault Pendulum

Articles on Coriolis effects

• McDonald, The Coriolis Effect, Scientific American, May 1952, p. 72.
• Burns, Deflection of Projectiles due to Rotation of the Earth, Am. J. Phys. 39, 1329 (1971).
• Renault & Okal, Investigating the physical nature of the Coriolis effects in the fixed frame, Am. J. Phys. 45, 631 (1977).
• McIntyre, Using Great Circles to Understand Motion on a Rotating Sphere, Am. J. Phys. 68, 1097 (2000).

Books on Special Relativity

The following books on special relativity should be on reserve in the library.

• Dixon, Special relativity: the foundation of macroscopic physics
  Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1978.
  (QC173.65 .D58)
• Ellis & Williams, Flat and curved space-times
  Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1988.
  (QC173.65 .E45 1988)
• French, Special relativity
  Norton, New York, 1968.
  (QC6 .F74)
• Mermin, Space and time in special relativity,
  McGraw-Hill, New York, 1968.
  (QC6 .M4)
• Taylor & Wheeler, Spacetime physics : introduction to special relativity, 2nd ed.,
  W. H. Freeman, New York, 1992.
  (QC173.65 .T37 1992)
• Woodhouse, Special relativity,
  Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1992.
  (QC173.65 .W66 1992)
• Synge, Relativity: the special theory, 2d ed.,
  North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1965.
  (QC6 .S9 1964a)
• Rindler, Introduction to special relativity,
  Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1982.
  (QC173.65 .R56 1982)
• Resnick, Introduction to special relativity,
  Wiley, New York, 1968.
  (QC6 .R388)

Video on Special Relativity

• The Mechanical Universe
  Volume 42: The Lorentz Transformation
  The Annenberg/CPB Collection, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1985/1987.
  (available from the Corvallis Public Library)