if a bug is flying around your car while you’re driving 60mph on the highway, is the bug flying at 60mph?

Question

if a bug is flying around your car while you’re driving 60mph on the highway, is the bug flying at 60mph?

In: 3939

Answer 1

Speed is always relative. So the bug is flying at 60mph relative to the road, but not relative to the car. You could also ask if the car is driving at 19 miles per second, as that’s how fast the earth is orbiting the sun. You can expound from there because the sun isn’t stationary in space.

We generally just express speeds in the most useful context for the circumstance.