When using De Broglie’s formulas to calculate the wavelengths of different objects, we typically use the speed of that object relative to an observer. But as we know celestial bodies are also moving through space with some velocity, and so every object on Earth is moving with the speed of the Earth +- the velocity of that object. Why do we not consider this when applying these formulas?
In: Physics
Yes, the structure of the wavefunction looks different to observers in different reference frames. It turns out that observers in different frames looking at the same interaction will make the same predictions, even though they observe different wavefunctions, so the theory is consistent and the choice of frame doesn’t matter. In fact choosing a frame in which the problem is easier is a good problem solving strategy.
Note that it’s not consistent under special relativistic transformations, which is one of the issues quantum field theory solves.
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