Physics students in the house, please explain to me like I am 5yrs old. How does a plane move at like 900km/h, yet when you’re inside, it feels like it’s moving so slowly?

This is how a 5 year old would understand this since you can't? Imagine you and all your toys are sitting inside a giant flying room. The room is racing through the sky very, very fast—faster than any car you have ever seen. But because the room, the air inside it, your seat, and you are all racing together at the same speed, nothing inside the room is sliding past you. Your toys stay still. That is why it feels quiet and slow. Your body is like a little feeling-machine. It notices when things speed up, slow down, or turn. Those changes are called acceleration. Once the flying room is cruising steadily, there is almost no change left to feel. So your body says, “Nothing is happening,” even though the whole room is still zooming. When you look out the window, the ground and the clouds are very far away. Far-away things always look like they are moving more slowly, the same way a mountain far down the road barely seems to crawl even when the car is going fast. The flying room is high up, so the world below looks like it is drifting. It is the same gentle trick the Earth uses every day. Our whole planet is spinning and racing around the Sun, yet we do not feel it because we, the air, the trees, and the oceans are all moving together. The universe likes to keep things balanced that way—so we can sit still, look out the window, and still be part of a great, quiet journey.🤣👌😉

Hahaha apt, thank you

@InfiniteRSAM You understand wetin him talk? Even a 5 years old child can not retain all these informations and explanations.

@InfiniteRSAM Because I already got a clear response from others, I just picked up the important points

Speed is relative, your body doesn’t directly “feel” speed, it feels acceleration (changes in speed or direction). Once the plane is cruising steadily at 900km/h, you, the air, and everything inside are moving together at nearly constant velocity.

Very helpful

Frame of reference. The objects in your frame of reference are very far from you. That's why.

Thank you

Same way the earth moves insanely fast around the sun and we don’t feel anything.

Because we are inside of it

1. Staying still and moving at a constant speed feels almost the same. If you close your eyes, you can't tell the difference. But when speed is increasing or decreasing, you feel that. Cars are always doing this, that's why they feel fast compared to airplanes.

Thank you

My pleasure

Easy. Planes move slowly the higher you go. At higher altitude probably nano altitudes,everything slows down,even yo thinking. It’s why when you are in a tree you easily fall because thinking and coordination slow down. In a mountain, it’s even worse. It’s why people wear helmets

🙏🏾🙏🏾

It’s magic. 🤣🤣🤣 well… you did say 5yr old. So, magic.

🤣🤣

It feels like it’s moving slow because the human body is much better at detecting acceleration than detecting constant speed.

Like I am 5yrs old 😭

E get wetin them Dey call visual reference. Driving a car at a high speed, the trees and sign posts along the way helps your eyes detect how fast you’re moving. When you’re up there, your brain lacks the visual signals to register speed because there are no objects around.

I get it now. Thank you bossman

You’re welcome 🤝

Pressurisation of the air inside, let there be a cracked window next to you and you’ll soon find the difference yourself when your body is hanging half outside the plane considering you have your seat belt on

Another angle

It’s actually moving fast 💨.. I don’t even know how to explain it to you like a 5 year old 😭

Haha someone has 😂😂

Okay great!

Appreciate

Its actually not even moving as fast, planes just take short cuts in the sky thats why you arrive at your destination faster. Its jet fighers, disbanded comcorde and rockets that move really fast.

@grok fact check

Planes do cruise at 800-950 km/h—that's genuinely fast. Great-circle routes are the shortest paths on a sphere (not magic shortcuts), and ATC may offer directs, but speed is real. You feel slow due to constant velocity and distant references, not low speed. Concorde hit ~2,180 km/h; fighters and rockets go faster.

try riding on the wing, you then may understand.

😂😂

Omo make i sit down this class

Who said it is moving slow

Can you read? 😂😂

Relative speed

There is no gadget for measuring feelings in physics so it would be impossible to deduce a scientific answer that satisfies your question

That's where the relativity theory comes in

@grok what does this say

@Rinzmann It refers to the principle of relativity. You only sense acceleration (speed changes), not steady motion. At constant cruising speed, you and the plane move together in the same inertial frame, so it feels like you're sitting still. Clouds look slow because they're distant.

You don't feel speed. You mainly feel changes in speed — acceleration, braking, turning and turbulence. That's why 900 km/h can feel like you're sitting in your living room once the aircraft is cruising smoothly.

The condition of the weather

Einstein law of motion

When you’re in a fast car, do you feel your body move with the car?

That’s not the question

It’s moving fast, you need to open the window to confirm. You just may have been sucked out before confirming 😆

When its driving on the ground, accelerating and about to take off, does it feel slow? No Relativity

Same way the earth rotates at over 1600 km/h and you don’t feel it 😄

Because you don’t have objects in the sky for you to compare with.

Like you're on earth..

When you are on the 1st floor balcony looking down, a teen running a 10 meter sprint appears to me moving fast, you’d have to turn your neck quickly to follow the transition. But if you are in the 10th floor balcony, your neck does not need to move; only your eyeballs. Same applies to your airplane scenario

You’d know when you pass through clouds, it’s damn fast!!

You feel speed in reference to earth or another object. Here there is no reference.

Relative motion. 1. You don't feel the outside air rushing past your skin. 2. All things around you inside the plane is moving along with you. 3. Things you see outside are very far when the plane is flying So you don't feel the speed

Se llama punto de referencia

It’s because the air is an open space and there is nothing to compare the plane’s speed to so it looks like you are moving slow.