if you hold a coin...?

Question

if you hold a coin above your head while in a bus that is not moving, the coin will land at your feet when you drop it. where will it land if the bus is moving in a straight line at constant speed? explain.

Answer 1

Same place as you are both moving at the same relative speed.

Answer 2

It will land just where it would if the bus were not moving. This is because the bus, the air in it, you, your hand, the coin etc are all moving at the same speed and in the same direction. When you let go of the coin it does not stop moving forward, but merely starts to drop downwards - as well. So the only direction of movement that the coin has which is not shared by everything else in the bus is the downward one, due to gravity. You can demonstrate that all the contents of the bus are moving forward by suddenly stopping it (the bus) by driving it into a wall for instance. Everything not rigidly(and very strongly) fixed to the bus flies forwards doesn't it? Which is to say - all those loose things continue to move forwards as they were doing (until they too hit the wall) Don't try this at home though - just take my word for it.

Answer 3

It would land where it did before. At an unchanging speed everything on the bus is moving the same way at the same speed. So if you drop the coin there is no reason it should suddenly go more slowly than the bus and fall behind.

Answer 4

The coin will drop in the same spot. All the objects; the bus, the air inside the bus, you, the coin, and the bus driver are all traveling at the same speed and so they have the same proportioned amount of kinetic energy. In fact, the coin drops at a point down the street from where it was released, but the bus moves to the same spot and catches the coin in the same place.
Not very scientific, but there you go.

Answer 5

It will still land at your feet. The coin is moving at a relative speed to the bus.

Answer 6

Same spot as when it isn't moving as the relative speeds between the coin and the bus is zero due to the constant velocity. It will only be different if the bus accelerates or decelerates, e.g. when it moves faster or slows down.

Answer 7

It will land exactly on the same place as before (if the bus is closed system) .

While the bus moving forward with constant velocity , you and the ball are ,too, travelling with the same velocity .

when you released the ball , it will travel will a parabola path with initial speed = velocity of bus .

Looking at the horizontal motion of the ball , it is same as the velocity of the bus . While for its vertical motion , its intial speed is 0 and is being pulled down by gravity with acceleration = g .

So when it reaches the floor , the ball travels the same horizontal distance as the bus do (assuming there is no turning ) . So it will fall exactly on the same place as before

Answer 8

Exactly the same place as if the bus were stationary. It maintains it's forward speed, the same as the bus's, so still lands at your feet.

If the bus were to decelerate it would land a little further forward, or a little further back if it accelerates.

Answer 9

The coin will inherently have the same velocity as you do, therefore it will land in the same spot as it would if you were both stationary.