Relative Motion

The laws of physics which apply when you are at rest on the earth also apply when you are in any reference frame which is moving at a constant velocity with respect to the earth. For example, you can toss and catch a ball in a moving bus if the motion is in a straight line at constant speed.

The motion may have a different appearance as viewed from a different reference frame, but this can be explained by including the relative velocity of the reference frame in the description of the motion.

Relative Velocity

One must take into account relative velocities to describe the motion of an airplane in the wind or a boat in a current. Assessing velocities involves vector addition and a useful approach to such relative velocity problems is to think of one reference frame as an "intermediate" reference frame in the form:

Put into words, the velocity of A with respect to C is equal to the velocity of A with respect to B plus the velocity of B with respect to C. Reference frame B is the intermediate reference frame. This approach can be used with the airplane or boat examples.