The role and significance of frame of reference in the revolutions of science
Meng Ai-jun · Kexuexue yanjiu · 2007
In the history of science,each revolution occurred unexceptionally accompanied by the changes of frame of reference,and some revolutions themselves happened based on frame of reference.The difference between heliocentric theory and geocentric theory actually originates from the difference in the selection of the original point of the two frames of reference.Modern mechanics differs from the ancient mechanics in that the former determines the inertial reference frame through law of inertia so that each physical concept has obtained unified experience and theoretical significance.The revolution of the Special Theory of Relativity is achieved because of the substituting of new transformational relationship(Lorentz transformation) for the transformational relationship of classic mechanics(Galileo transformation) on the basis of relativity principle and permanent principle of light velocity.Frame of reference,as the practical medium system connecting the subject and the object,brings about scientific changes through the determination of a discipline's experience-theory system of signs by means of projection and transformation,and through the selection of the original point and dimensions.