Editing 1366: Train

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This comic, which appeared the day before {{w|National Train Day}}, plays on the fact that a choice of a {{w|Inertial frame of reference|reference frame}} is arbitrary, leading to the {{w|Principle of relativity|"Principle of relativity"}} in {{w|Albert Einstein}}'s theories of {{w|special relativity}} and {{w|general relativity}}. But at speeds much lower than the speed of light it also applies to the {{w|Classical mechanics|newtonian mechanics}}.
 
This comic, which appeared the day before {{w|National Train Day}}, plays on the fact that a choice of a {{w|Inertial frame of reference|reference frame}} is arbitrary, leading to the {{w|Principle of relativity|"Principle of relativity"}} in {{w|Albert Einstein}}'s theories of {{w|special relativity}} and {{w|general relativity}}. But at speeds much lower than the speed of light it also applies to the {{w|Classical mechanics|newtonian mechanics}}.
  
βˆ’
Rather than viewing this situation as a train causing itself to move relative to an immobile Earth, [[Randall]] provides the unconventional perspective of a train remaining fixed in space while causing the Earth itself and all the stars in the sky to rotate instead. In principle either perspective is equally valid β€” though in practice different trains often move in mutually-exclusive directions, thus each train would have to define its own frame of reference. It is said that Einstein once asked a ticket collector, "What time does Oxford stop at this train?"
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Rather than viewing this situation as a train causing itself to move relative to an immobile Earth, [[Randall]] provides the unconventional perspective of a train remaining fixed in space while causing the Earth itself and all the stars in the sky to rotate instead. In principle either perspective is equally valid β€” though in practice different trains often move in mutually-exclusive directions, thus each train would have to define its own frame of reference. There is a quotation, attributed to Einstein, that he once asked a ticket collector, "What time does Oxford stop at this train?"
  
 
Changing the reference frame into the inside of the train only means that you see the outside world in a different reference, since the train doesn't really move the Earth{{Citation needed}} (the train's engine and the friction of the wheels aren't even remotely powerful enough) it simply appears that way from the inside.
 
Changing the reference frame into the inside of the train only means that you see the outside world in a different reference, since the train doesn't really move the Earth{{Citation needed}} (the train's engine and the friction of the wheels aren't even remotely powerful enough) it simply appears that way from the inside.

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