reference framen.

1901 A. Gray Treat. Physics 189 The kinetic energy is the energy of the motions of the parts of the system relatively to a reference frame entirely independent of the material system [etc.].

1923 Sci. Monthly Jan. 46 It is a purely subjective distortion depending on our transformation of the reference frame of space and time.

1947 S. A. Stigant Mod. Electr. Engin. Math. vii. 136 The general definition of a tensor..is that mathematically it represents a quantity which remains invariant to a linear transformation (or change) of reference frame or axes.

1967 L. S. Rodberg & R. M. Thaler Introd. Quantum Theory of Scattering x. 260 The S matrix we have been using..describes collisions in an arbitrary reference frame.

2000 J. McFall tr. K. Wille Physics of Particle Accelerators 299 If we consider a reference frameK which is at rest and an inertial frame K′ moving..relative to it, these four quantities transform between the two frames according to the Lorentz transformation.

2007 Atherosclerosis 191 221/2 All measurements were carried out in end-diastole, using the R-wave of a simultaneously recorded ECG as a reference frame.

1930 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 42 359 This was first taken as a choppy melody... Later I felt the melody was completed quite adequately. I had shifted to a different reference-frame or setting, to a more sophisticated, musical one.

1937 G. Murphy et al. Exper. Social Psychol. (rev. ed.) iv. 220 A laboratory situation is set in which social factors determine a reference frame which must be used by the subject in perceiving.

1976 Sociol. Q. 17 135/1 Not only does the volume lack an articulated reference frame, but in addition, the schemata presented are confused, superficial, unintegrated, and at times conflicting.

1997 S. Pinker How Mind Works (1998) iv. 262 The key to using visual information is not to remold it but to access it properly, and that calls for a useful reference frame or coordinate system.