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Asked by jiyun to Alan, Caspar, Diana, Murray, Sarah on 21 Mar 2011 in Categories: General.
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Diana Drennan answered on 18 Mar 2011:
If you are standing on top of a train doing 50 miles an hour, you are moving at 50 miles an hour too. If you step off the train, you’re still going 50 miles an hour. But, you’re not being pushed forward by an engine anymore, so you slow down. Of course, if the ground was only a foot down, you’d hit the ground pretty much right away, but you’d hit it doing 50 miles an hour, so you’d hit hard and fall and roll. It would hurt. A lot. I remember seeing a cartoon when I was a kid where the plane was crashing and the character just stepped off the plane right before it crashed and he was fine. Seems good, right ? Except that really, he’d still be going the same speed as the plane and would hit the ground just as hard. (ouch !)
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Alan Winfield answered on 19 Mar 2011:
Yes probably, but it’s almost certainly the wind that would make you move from when you were before. Even though you are jumping you would still be moving forward at more-or-less the speed of the train.
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Caspar Addyman answered on 21 Mar 2011:
if you were inside the train you could jump up and land exactly the spot in train (but several hundred feet furhter along your journey.) if you were on top of the train the air would blow you backwards relative to the train.. Please don’t try it.
But You could try sticking your hand out of the sunroof of a car.
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Sarah Thomas answered on 21 Mar 2011:
Yes you wouldn’t land in the same place because for a split second you would have left your point of reference, the train, and while you were in the air the train will have moved. This question is quite similar to a previous one about a bullet on a train, here is a link in case you are interested = http://ias.im/35.130
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