WHy

is it that when im in a car traveling at some speed and i observe another car traveling at my speed plus some arbitrary amount (lets say +5mph) i observe that cars motion at less than the actual difference in speed between my car and it.

tl;dr

why do cars going alot faster than me on the highway look like they are going maybe 3-4mph past my window

You're wrong.

Stop following their motion and fix your gaze on a single line of sight.

Dumbass.

because you assume that you're going at v=0, therefore when you look at them you're looking at the difference in your speed and their speed.

eg. you ride at v=20ms^-1, they ride at 24ms^-1
you will percieve it as if they are riding 4ms^-1 past you.

>>4

What the hell do you raise v to a negative power for?

>>5

m*s^-1 = m*(1/s) = m/s = m per s
m*s^-1 != (m*s)^-1 = 1/ms = ???

>>5
hey fuckwit, ms^-1 is the same as m/s
l2maths

>>1

OP don't listen to these assholes. It has to do with relativity. As you approach the speed of light time slows down to a stop. Obviously you're not anywhere near the speed of light but you can still observe this effect. Hope that helps.

>>8
The effects of special relativity are less than one in ten thousand at a tenth the speed of light. At every day speeds they are completely impossible to notice.

you cannot simply add velocities bakas

This is why Einstein was wrong

>>4
NO

when a car passes me going 10mph faster, it appears to be going 4-5mph past me

it should appear that they are going the full 10mph faster. It should be no different than if i was at a stand still and a car was driving 10mph past me, but this isnt the case. In both cases, at the end of the hour, the other car is 10miles in front of me, why does it appear different when im traveling faster?

>>12
Because you drink and drive.

>>13
best answer yet

>>12
I'm thinking some of >>3, >>12, and the fact that your mind is registering things a bit slowly.

After you've been traveling at high speed for a while, you start perceiving speeds as lower than they actually are. This is a well known hazard of driving, but I don't know its name in English.
And how often do you have cars driving past at 10mph for comparison? I'm sure it would be easier to assess if they'd drive in sensible metric units.

This proves relativity is flawed, as it is neither observable nor falsifiable.

>>16
This. It's simply that the human mind isn't very precise and is easily fooled. Physics is fine, your judgment just sucks. Nothing against you personally, human brains, frankly, just plain suck. It's a well known fact and it has caused all sorts of unexpected problems. It's like optical illusions: they only work because our brains are showing us what they think we're supposed to be seeing instead of what we are ACTUALLY seeing. Get it?

Our brains are stupid, our bodies are weak. I can't wait to trade in this meat bag for a cyborg body. With lasers... and rocket skates... and boobies.

Also, you're seeing the entire car drive by, probably watching it.

It's the same thing like when you see a tree far away in a field and drive by it but it moves really slowly, you're just seeing it from far away...

I bet if you gave yourself horse blinders and watched straight out the side of your car, the other car would pass you at what seemed to be 10mph or whatever.

SUP DAWG. WE HEARD YOU LIKE CARS SO WE PUT A CAR IN YO CAR SO YOU CAN DO DRIVEBYS WHILE YOU DO DRIVEBYS

Solution: Drive faster.

Maybe you should be paying attention to the road instead of how fast the other cars are going.