Answer to Question #92914 in Atomic and Nuclear Physics for Marc Anthony Ogbac

Question

a boy is inside a bus moving at 5.0 m/s toward the east. He is walking at 1.0 m/s toward the front. What is the velocity of the boy as observed by (a) a passenger sitting inside the bus and (b) another passenger waiting for the bus at a nearby bus stop?

Answer 1

a) If the velocity of 1 m/s was measured relatively to the bus, and the passenger inside the bus is sitting in that bus, the velocity that the passenger would measure is also 1 m/s, since that passenger is "fixed" at the surface on which the boy walks.

b) Another passenger sees the bus approaching to the bus stop at velocity of 5 m/s. The boy walks toward the front with 1 m/s, so he "will" approach the passenger earlier, and his velocity would seem to that passenger as (5+1)=6 m/s.