- #1
bill nye scienceguy!
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As I was sitting at work the other day productively watching an aeroplane fly across the window I started to think of this problem.
If I measure the time it takes for the image of the plane to track across a known distance on the window I can quickly calculate a speed at which the image is travelling. Assuming I know the distance of the plane, how can I extrapolate its absolute velocity?
Is it as simple as using similar triangles to estimate the absolute distance that the plane has traveled in the measured time and calculating from that or do I need to get reference frames involved?
Obviously this approach assumes I can accurately estimate how far away a plane is...
If I measure the time it takes for the image of the plane to track across a known distance on the window I can quickly calculate a speed at which the image is travelling. Assuming I know the distance of the plane, how can I extrapolate its absolute velocity?
Is it as simple as using similar triangles to estimate the absolute distance that the plane has traveled in the measured time and calculating from that or do I need to get reference frames involved?
Obviously this approach assumes I can accurately estimate how far away a plane is...