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Galilean Transformation


A transformation from one reference frame to another moving with a constant velocity v with respect to the first for classical motion. However, special relativity shows that the transformation must be modified to the Lorentz transformation for relativistic motion. The forward Galilean transformation is

 [t^'; x^'; y^'; z^']=[1 0 0 0; -v 1 0 0; 0 0 1 0; 0 0 0 1][t; x; y; z],

and the inverse transformation is

 [t; x; y; z]=[1 0 0 0; v 1 0 0; 0 0 1 0; 0 0 0 1][t^'; x^'; y^'; z^'].

See also

Lorentz Transformation

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Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Galilean Transformation." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/GalileanTransformation.html

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