Question

A man stands still on a moving walkway and a woman walks past him in the same direction as the escalator. to a stationary observer, the man has a speed of 0.3 m/s and the woman has a speed of 0.38 m/s. from the frame of reference of the man on the escalator, how fast is the woman walking?

a. 0.08 m/s
b. 0.3 m/s
c. 0.68 m/s
d. 0.38 m/s

Answer 1

From the frame of reference of the man on the escalator, the woman is walking at a speed of 0.08 m/s. The man's speed is subtracted from the woman's speed as observed by a stationary observer to find the relative speed of the woman from the man's perspective.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how fast the woman is walking from the man's frame of reference on the moving walkway, we subtract the speed of the man from the speed of the woman. Since the man has a speed of 0.3 m/s from the stationary observer's point of view, and the woman has a speed of 0.38 m/s, we calculate the relative speed as:

Speed of woman from man's frame of reference = Speed of woman - Speed of man

Speed of woman from man's frame of reference = 0.38 m/s - 0.3 m/s

Speed of woman from man's frame of reference = 0.08 m/s

Therefore, from the frame of reference of the man on the escalator, the woman is walking at a speed of 0.08 m/s. The correct answer is option (a) 0.08 m/s.