Where would you land on a jumping jet that is moving at 600 km/hr?

Question

When you're inside a plane that is moving at a speed of 600 km/hr, and you jump straight up INSIDE the plane. Where will you land? My science teacher gave this question to the class and she said the answer is you will land at the same place you jumped from. She then explained that you're moving with the plane. I don't get it. When you jumped, your feet don't touch the floor of the plane. When you land down, aren't you suppose to be at a different place from where you started? Please can somebody explain to me? Thanks.

Answer 1

when you are flying in a plane, the plane and everything in it, including you is moving at the same speed. When you jump, you are still going 600 Km/hr, you dont instantly stop because you arent touching the plane, you still have momentum. Its the same concept of jumping on earth. the earth is moving at about 1670 km/hr, so are we. if you jump on earth you dont land .5 km(rough estimate) away (assuming your jump lasts 1 second).

Answer 2

Since the outside air is not hitting you, you would land in nearly the same spot. If you were standing in the bed of a pick-up truck going 60 mph and jumped up, you would land on the road and very hard! The wind of speed would create enough friction to slow you down and the truck would drive out from under you and you would get hurt or die, so don't try it as an experiment.
Everything inside a plane travel at the same speed since there is no air resistance working against you.

Answer 3

You're on a planet that is spinning at a rate of about a thousand miles an hour at the equator tangentially. Yet if you jump straight up, you land in the same spot. Why should the jet motion be any different? It's all about "frame of reference". You're moving at 600km/hr WITH the airplane. Same speed as the plane. You go up, you come down in the same spot. If the plane sped up or slowed down while you were in the air, then you'd land in a different spot.

Answer 4

This is all a quation of relativity. You are in the same spot relative to the plane, but not to the ground.

When you are in the plane, you are moving the same speed as the plane (if you were moving faster, you would slam into the cockpit, slower and you would fall out the back.

When you jump straight up, your forward velocity stays constant, i.e. you are still moving forward at the same speed as the plane. So when you land, you land in the same horizontal spot, relative to the plane.

The force you feel on your back as the plane takes off is the force of the plane accelerating you. So when you are in a plane moving 600KM/hour, you are also moving that fast because the plane is "pushing you" along at that speed. Thus, your forward speed relative to the plane is zero, and you will land in the same spot on the plane. If not, everyone who jumped on a plane would now fly out the back.

Keep this in mind: when you are on the ground, the ground is actually moving very fast relative to other objects in space because the earth is rotating very quickly (once every 24 hours). The ground underneath you is moving very fast with the spinning globe, but so are you. You are also rotating around the Earth's axis. So, like in the plane, when you jump straight up, you land on the same spot of Earth because you and the Earth are moving together.

If you jumped straight up on one of those people movers at the airport, you would also land in the same spot, relative to the belt, but not relative to the guardrails. Its all an issue of relativity.

Answer 5

It's a basic physics concept of frame of reference. You will land exactly where you jumped from. You are moving at the same speed as the plane, in the same frame of reference, and there is no wind to alter that speed since you're inside.

Same as on the earth - rotating at one revolution (several thousand miles) per day, but you don't feel like you're moving when standing still because it's all in the same frame of reference.

If you were ON TOP of the plane, the wind would blow you out of position and you'd land somewhere other than where you started.

Answer 6

The first posting is correct but the second posting is incorrect.

You and your body are being propelled forward at the same speed as the jet. Your body, when you jump straight up, will be propelled at a velocity up and forward at the same time. Because your body is sent forward at 600 km/hr, the forward motion of your body in the air equals the forward motion of the jet while you are in the air.
You will drop down on exactly the same spot on the jet plane.

Answer 7

Since you are going the exact same speed as the jet, you will not land in a different place.

I forget exactly what it's called, but it's like when you suddenly take off in a car, you jolt backwards a bit; this is because the car is moving faster than you, but then you pick up speed & start going the same speed as the car.

Does this make sense?

Answer 8

your user name is as same as my last name!!!!!! what a coincidence!!!

secondly, you will land in the same spot within the plane. Before you jump upward, you has a forward velocity. you are traveling with the plane. When jumping up, you keeps your forward velocity. you keeps moving forward with the vehicle.
And that's why you land on the same speed. U and plane have a same speed.

Answer 9

You would land in the same part of the plane.. but u would be in a different spot because the plane is moving soo fast over the ground

Answer 10

if the plane isn't accelerating you will land exactly where you started. since you are not moving in the jet's frame of reference you act as if you are standing still. another way to look at it is you are moving just as fast as the jet, and since air form the outside isn't hitting you, it wont knock you back.

relativity states that any experiment can be done (within the same frame of reference) at rest and at a constant velocity and come up with the same result