Doing long jump inside aircraft in flight

[ajaustin]

A friend of mine who has a lot of experience with aircraft tells me the following:-

If you do a long jump in an aircraft flying at 500mph you will be able to jump considerably further jumping towards the tail than jumping towards the nose.

His premise seems to be that something changes when your feet are off the floor.

I think what he is saying is incorrect and that the distance jumped will be the same in either direction as the whole activity takes place relative to the velocity of the aircraft. I am assuming that the aircraft is in level flight, traveling at constant velocity and has no air flow in its interior.

 

[russ_watters]

You are correct. This is called the principle of relativity.

 

[DaveC426913]

Your friend has a naive concept of relative motion.

Ask him what happens on a plane if you attempt to simply hop in place? Will you land farther back?

 

[ajaustin]

Thanks for your responses, most helpful, sorry if it was a rather trivial question.

I have now been able to enlighten my friend on the subject. I seems that the pilot of the aircraft may have been having him on as they were probably not in level flight.