How come when you are on an airplane moving at 350 mph you don't feel like you are moving that quickly?

Question

Or at all for that matter? What's the science behind that (in regular people terms)?

when i say feel i mean like seat is shaking, not about what i can see

Answer 1

You do not feel the movement because your points of reference are the plane and the ground. Everything in the plane is moving as the same speed as you are, so there is no sensation of movement there. If you look out the window at the ground, you are so high up that your normal points of reference look so small as to be unusable.

You are going 350 mph, the room around you is going 350 MPH. You do not feel motion, because everything is the same speed. Think how fast the earth is turning. We do not feel it because we are moving with it.

You feel "speed" based on physical clues. You use visual points of reference, along with things like the feeling of wind and G forces. If you are going 70MPH in a car, it does not feel that fast. Go half that speed on a bicycle and you feel like you are going extremely quickly.

Answer 2

When your on a plane doing 350 mph your either still accelerating, your slowing down for landing or your not on a jet plane. When you pass another plane going in the opposite direction, you know how fast you really are going. When you pass a contrail in the sky or a bit of cloud passes by the window, you get a good idea. When you hit clear air turbulence and the 747 your in drops 100 feet straight down, boy do you know it. The science behind your feeling of speed is simply the points of reference your brain uses. Mostly in a plane the points all around you are all doing the same speed in the same direction so your eyes dont tell the brain that your moving. When you used to be allowed up into the cockpit and get a pilots eye view it is quite different cos you see mostly all around outside the plane and your eyes tell brain that you that you are moving. Same happens in a train at 300 kph (187 mph), only when you look out of the window and try and focus on things going past do you really get the feeling of speed. Imagine what it is like up in space when your speed is much faster but nothing close by gives you any sense of speed and even if you go space walking, the "air" doesnt rush past you.

Answer 3

Moving Airplane

Answer 4

Inertia: The property of an object to remain at constant velocity unless acted upon by an outside force. It should be emphasized that 'inertia' is a scientific principle, and thus not quantifiable.

You are not moving because the interior of a plane (including atmosphere) is not moving
If you were to stand on the wing, you'd feel the speed

Think about it this way, the Earth is hurling through Space at thousands of miles per hour do you feel it?

Answer 5

The acceleration is gradual and once you and the plane are moving at top speed there is no sensation of speed. Notice when you land and you get thrown forward when the pilot hits the breaks. It's then that you realize that you were moving very fast indeed.

Answer 6

Because you are high above the ground the things that are far away from you move by very slowly. Look at the view of the Earth the "SpaceShuttle" see's! The Earth moves slowly, even though the space shuttle is in orbit and flys at 30,000 mph or mach 17!

Answer 7

When you are accelerating in your car (0 to 75 mph) you can feel the speed but once you get there it's as if you are standing stilll. You can only sense changes in speed.

Answer 8

There is a difference between speed ans acceletation. As the speed increases.... acceleration increases. Once the speed stays constaint... the acceleration stays at zero. You stop moving faster. Just as the earth is spinning at 240,000 miles an hous.... the speed is constaint.... we feel no effect.

Answer 9

Because we sense changes in speed, not speed it's self, so unless the plane is accelerating or deccelerating then you won't feel it.

I seem to remember from school that it is liquids in the inner ear that sense these changes in speed.

Hope this helps.

Answer 10

as said before, its because you're so high up.....a good example is when your in a car, it looks like ur going faster if u look down at the road instead of straight out