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Relative Motion
Name: Avijit U.
Status: student
Age: 17
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2000-2001
Question:
Dear Sir:
My question is as follows--
The earth takes 12 hours for a half rotation.That is it takes about twelve
hours for the westernmost extrmety[say XX] of the world o receive light
after the easternmost extremity[say YY].
I also assume it takes more than 36 hours by a plane to get to Tokyo from
New York on a normal airliner.
Now if a plane,instead of flying towards YY after taking off form XX,flies
opposite to that direction,with the same speed as the earth is rotating in
that part of the world{abt .5km/sec.}..will it then,after 12 hours be over
YY ??
Replies:
Still slightly confused about the exact question, but on today's planes it is
about 15 hours from NYC to Tokyo, at least it was only 12 hours from Detroit
to Beijing the last time I went. As for the 36 hours-do not forget the time
difference and the International Date Line-when flying east to west you
"gain" time, west to east you "lose" time. All I mean is if you fly east to
west and leave at 2pm-such as Europe to New York you would arrive at about 3
PM New York Time. to keep it all relative the journey is the "about" the
same time except if you take the jet stream into the equation but anyway
again if you left Europe at 2pm it would be 8am in New York-arriving at 3pm
in New York (now 9 PM in Europe) would mean the journey took 7 hours.
Flying the other way-New York to Europe is roughly about the same time but
it feels like you lost time, leaving NYC at 2pm (9pm in Europe) you land in
Europe at 4am the next day-meanwhile back in New York it is only 9 PM of the
same day you left. Hope this did not confuse you anymore!
Michael Baldwin
Avijit,
A plane flies THROUGH THE AIR. The air rotates with the earth. As a
result, it takes close to the same amount of time to fly from Tokyo to New
York in either the east or west direction. Specific time depends on wind
speed and wind direction along the trip. The plane's airspeed and
direction, when combined with the motion of the air over the ground,
determines the motion of the plane over the ground.
Dr. Ken Mellendorf
Illinois Central College
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