It is not clear what is to be understood here by “position” and “space.” I stand at the window of a railway carriage which is travelling uniformly, and drop a stone on the embankment, without throwing it. Then, disregarding the influence of the air resistance, I see the stone descend4 in a straight line. A pedestrian who observes the misdeed from the footpath5 notices that the stone falls to earth in a parabolic curve. I now ask: Do the “positions” traversed by the stone lie “in reality” on a straight line or on a parabola? Moreover, what is meant here by motion “in space”? From the considerations of the previous section the answer is self-evident. In the first place we entirely6 shun7 the vague word “space,” of which, we must honestly acknowledge, we cannot form the slightest conception, and we replace it by “motion relative to a practically rigid8 body of reference.” The positions relative to the body of reference (railway carriage or embankment) have already been defined in detail in the preceding section. If instead of “body of reference” we insert “system of co-ordinates,” which is a useful idea for mathematical description, we are in a position to say: The stone traverses a straight line relative to a system of co-ordinates rigidly9 attached to the carriage, but relative to a system of co-ordinates rigidly attached to the ground (embankment) it describes a parabola. With the aid of this example it is clearly seen that there is no such thing as an independently existing trajectory10 (lit. “path-curve”1), but only a trajectory relative to a particular body of reference.
In order to have a complete description of the motion, we must specify11 how the body alters its position with time; i.e. for every point on the trajectory it must be stated at what time the body is situated12 there. These data must be supplemented by such a definition of time that, in virtue13 of this definition, these time-values can be regarded essentially14 as magnitudes (results of measurements) capable of observation. If we take our stand on the ground of classical mechanics, we can satisfy this requirement for our illustration in the following manner. We imagine two clocks of identical construction; the man at the railway-carriage window is holding one of them, and the man on the footpath the other. Each of the observers determines the position on his own reference-body occupied by the stone at each tick of the clock he is holding in his hand. In this connection we have not taken account of the inaccuracy involved by the finiteness of the velocity15 of propagation of light. With this and with a second difficulty prevailing16 here we shall have to deal in detail later.
1 That is, a curve along which the body moves.
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1 lucidity | |
n.明朗,清晰,透明 | |
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2 formulate | |
v.用公式表示;规划;设计;系统地阐述 | |
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3 detailed | |
adj.详细的,详尽的,极注意细节的,完全的 | |
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4 descend | |
vt./vi.传下来,下来,下降 | |
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5 footpath | |
n.小路,人行道 | |
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6 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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7 shun | |
vt.避开,回避,避免 | |
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8 rigid | |
adj.严格的,死板的;刚硬的,僵硬的 | |
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9 rigidly | |
adv.刻板地,僵化地 | |
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10 trajectory | |
n.弹道,轨道 | |
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11 specify | |
vt.指定,详细说明 | |
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12 situated | |
adj.坐落在...的,处于某种境地的 | |
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13 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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14 essentially | |
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上 | |
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15 velocity | |
n.速度,速率 | |
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16 prevailing | |
adj.盛行的;占优势的;主要的 | |
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