In physics, the expression inertial space refers to the background reference that is provided by the phenomenon of inertia.
Inertia is opposition to change of velocity, that is: change of velocity with respect to the background, the background that all physical objects are embedded in. Accelerometers measure how hard an object is accelerating with respect to inertial space. More precisely, accelerometers measure the magnitude of the change of velocity with respect to inertial space.
The inertial guidance systems that are used in navigation and in guidance of missiles work by detecting acceleration and rotation with respect to inertial space.
Read more about Inertial Space: Derivatives With Respect To Time, Gyroscopes, Astronomy, Applications in Navigation
Famous quotes containing the word space:
“If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing. It would take us as long to recall a space of time as it took the original time to elapse, and we should never get ahead with our thinking. All recollected times undergo, accordingly, what M. Ribot calls foreshortening; and this foreshortening is due to the omission of an enormous number of facts which filled them.”
—William James (1842–1910)