If you run 10mph inside of a train that is moving 100mph, are you moving 110mph or 100mph?

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If you run 10mph inside of a train that is moving 100mph, are you moving 110mph or 100mph?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Velocity is all relative to where you’re looking from. From the perspective of someone standing on the ground outside the train, if you run in the direction the train is moving, then you are moving at 110mph. (90mph if you run against the train). From the perspective of you and other passengers on the train, you are only moving at 10mph. From the perspective of space, if your train was travelling east along the equator, you’d be moving at 1,110mph, because you and the train are travelling along the direction of Earth’s rotation (which is approximately 1,000mph at the equator)

If this were an elementary physics problem you’d be solving from the perspective of the person watching the train from the outside.

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