Why whenever you drop something out of a car, it falls behind you but when you drop something inside a car, it falls straight down?

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Why whenever you drop something out of a car, it falls behind you but when you drop something inside a car, it falls straight down?

In: Physics

7 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Everything that is in the car has momentum, so it’s moving as fast as the car.

When you drop something out the window it also has momentum, ie moving as fast as the car. But it is suddenly exposed to things that slow it down like air resistance and hitting the ground. So the object will quickly lose all that energy and come to rest on the pavement.

Where-as with the car its momentum is maintained despite air and road resistance etc because there is a constant input of energy (the engine) keeping it moving.

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