A person is walking on a treadmill. The treadmill is moving backwards at a speed of 3.0 m/s. The person is moving forward relative to the treadmill at 2.5 m/s. What is the person's velocity relative to the ground?

Question

Physics

Ariana Erickson

29 November, 14:13

A person is walking on a treadmill. The treadmill is moving backwards at a speed of 3.0 m/s. The person is moving forward relative to the treadmill at 2.5 m/s. What is the person's velocity relative to the ground?

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Answers (1)

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Jonah Castro · Answer 1

V = - 0.5[m/s]

Explanation:

To solve this problem we have to analyze it by means of relative speeds, we have a treadmill that moves at a speed of - 3 [m/s], (the negative sign means that it moves in a sense opposite to that of the person). The person moves at a speed of 2.5 [m/s]

Therefore we have from the perspective of a person placed outside

- 3 + 2.5 = - 0.5 [m/s]

Note: This would physically look like the person retreating as he or she walks forward, should increase his or her speed to 3 [m/s] to balance the speed of the band and not get out of it.