I was sitting (facing backwards) on a train yesterday for 3 hours and when the train came to a stop, the landscape outside the window appeared to be moving past very slowly as if i was moving forward. What is this phenomenon and what causes it?
2006-06-08 00:04:13 · 2 answers · asked by Sherlock 6 in Education & Reference ➔ Trivia
there is a name for this phenomonon. Parallax. The apparent movement of an object at a distance due to the movement of the observer. Your movement can make you thinke an object is moving.
Simple demonstration. Pick a SPOT on a far wall. Close one eye. Hold your arm out and give the thumb's up sign. Move your thumb so it blocks your open eye from seeing the dot. Keep your head and thumb still and switch eyes. Your brain thinks the dot moved but it didn't. Your point of observation moved the distance between your eyes.
Astronomers use this to measure the distance of close stars. If you look out into space at a star you can see it and know on what azimuth (direction) it lies but not how far away it is. So scientist measure the angle to the star, wait six months until they are on the other side of the sun and measure the angle again. If they have studied up on their astronomy and can figure how far the base line between where Earth is now and siz months ago they can use the two angles and draw a triangle . Where the two other sides of the triangle meet is where the star is and some basic math allows them to calculate how far away the star is.
2006-06-13 08:26:16 · answer #1 · answered by bulldog5667 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it is because of perception of relative speed.
2006-06-08 04:02:04 · answer #2 · answered by shogunly 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋