inertial observer

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Related to inertial observer: Equivalence of inertial frames

inertial observer

(General Physics) a hypothetical observer who is not accelerated with respect to an inertial system. Newton's laws of motion and the special theory of relativity apply to the measurements which would be made by such observers

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The theory of relativity tries to connect views of different inertial observers. The principle of relativity says that all such observers are equivalent; that is, two inertial observers performing the same experiment will obtain the same results.

Moving Unstable Particles and Special Relativity

Two inertial observers with different velocities will disagree on which events are simultaneous with which other events (at least if they use the Einstein simultaneity convention).

However, one may take the point of view of Lorentz, and arguably Bell (1976), whereby there is an objective lapse of time, that associated with some privileged family of inertial observers. (2) This privileged reference frame is empirically inaccessible but ontologically meaningful, unless one is some sort of verificationist, which Yourgrau is at pains to say that Godel is not.