In space, if the ISS is traveling at 17,150 miles per hour how does it look so stationary in the video from the Dragon capsule. Also How does it dock so precisely when it is moving so fast.
In: Physics
Wanna see how fast and complex you are _really_ moving? https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/08/30/our-motion-through-space-isnt-a-vortex-but-something-far-more-interesting/amp/
its because speed is relative and if they’re both traveling at the same speed, it barely feels lime they’re moving at all
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I think another important thing to consider is the lack of atmospheric particles in space. Things moving at very high velocities within the atmosphere are hitting a lot of molecules in the air creating friction, re-entry burn, etc. Basically, that’s what gives the appearance of instability at high velocity, but in space where there are little-to-no particles to cause that friction, vehicles moving at very high velocity won’t show that same instability.
The same way you can push buttons on your cars dashboard while moving at 65 mph down the freeway.
, have you ever been on the highway?
You know the earth is moving at something like 67,000 mph around the Sun and it yet we can throw a ball and catch it without thinking too much.
Why does it seem like that car infront of you isn’t moving when he’s doing 75 mph? Because you’re doing 75 mph.
Except the car infront of you is the ISS and you’re Crew Dragon.
If you are eating a cheesburger in your car traveling at 60 MPH, the cheeseburger is also traveling 60 MPH.
Now if someone throws a cheesburger into your mouth at 60 MPH, there can be problems.
It’s moving 17,150 mph relative to *us*, but what matters for docking is how quickly it’s moving relative to the ISS. We are completely irrelevant at that point. At the point of docking, they’re basically moving at the same speed relative to us, so their speed with respect to each other is basically 0. It’s like if you’re in a car and your friend’s car pulls up next to you. You guys can be driving as fast as you want, but you can still do things like pass stuff back and forth between the cars without having to take their speed relative to the road into account. This is basically the whole idea behind reference frames. In their view, it’s the road that’s moving quickly, and that’s perfectly valid. Neither of those reference frames us any more valid or right than the other. Physics is the same in both of them. That’s the beauty of relativity.
You can extend the same idea to the Earth. The Earth is orbiting the Sun, the Solar System is moving through the galaxy, the galaxy is moving in our local group, our local group is moving with respect to other clusters. That’s a *ton* of motion, but everything seems still here.
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