principle of relativity
Noun
Meaning
(physics) a universal law that states that the laws of mechanics are not affected by a uniform rectilinear motion of the system of coordinates to which they are referred
Source: WordNetSynonyms
Hypernyms
Examples
However, this resulted in a limitation inherent in special relativity: the principle of relativity could only apply to reference frames that were inertial in nature (meaning when no acceleration was present).
This fact represents the essence of the Galilean principle of relativity: The laws of mechanics have the same form in all inertial frames.
We are thus introduced to a new principle of relativity, which holds that all observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar, or can in some way be calibrated.