SOME REMARKS ON THE EXTENDED GALILEAN TRANSFORMATION

The Galilean transformation carries one inertial frame into another with a different velocity. The extended Galilean transformation carries an inertial frame into a rigid frame with uniform spatial, but arbitrary translational acceleration x’ = x + £(t). Besides being useful in discussing the equivalence principle, this transformation provides a physical interpretation for the theorem in nonrelativistic mechanics, that we cannot coherently combine states of different mass. This restriction comes about because we cannot distinguish between coordinate and proper time in nonrelativistic physics. © 1979, American Association of Physics Teachers. All rights reserved.