Demonstrating the first postulate of relativity in a lift

Abstract

The first of the two postulates of relativity states that the laws of physics are the same in all inertial reference frames. Often it is assumed that the postulates are mainly concerned with objects moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light. However, the postulates are applicable at all speeds from a snail to a photon. To practically demonstrate the first postulate, the time for a ball to drop a known distance was measured in a stationary and moving lift. An accelerometer app on an iPhone 7 was used to measure the vertical acceleration while the lift travelled between floors and verified that the lift ascended and descended at a constant speed when the ball was dropped. The slow-motion feature of the iPhone 7 (240 fps) was used to capture videos of the falling ball. The number of frames for the ball to fall in a stationary, descending, and ascending lift was respectively A t-test revealed no significant difference between these values, confirming the validity of the first postulate. The accelerometer signal was integrated to estimate the average speed of the lift between the bottom and top floor, which was then used to estimate the height difference. An electronic balance placed on the floor of the lift was used to demonstrate the first postulate and the equivalence principle of General Relativity that states that gravitational and inertial mass are equivalent.