WarmUp Exercise #1, 8/23  (Assignment Due 8/25)

Above is an applet that illustrates Snell's law using Fermat's principle (least time).  It shows many paths possible and the actual path is the one that minimizes the time as the path that gets to the end point first is the actual path that the light takes.  Note that the non-correct paths take longer times than the correct path.

Here is the question for Wednesday:

  1. The textbook definition of an inertial frame of reference is "a frame in which Newton's laws are valid."  Practically speaking, how would you go about testing whether or not a given frame of reference constitutes an inertial frame? (I will start you out easy...)
     

Answer in the form below, a short answer for each is fine. 
This report is due by 8:00 am Wednesday morning.

Your Name: 

For this assignment, I was:  of my answers.