Train Ride, Space Ride

 

       Like the hundreds of thousands of other people that use the MTA system to get where they need to go, I've made it a habit to keep myself entertained during my trip. Always distracting myself with a book, movie, game or music. It makes the ride go by a lot faster and also helps so you don't make eye contact with anyone else on train. So you can imagine the position I was in when I forgot my book and my phone was dead. I was forced to sit on the train and just wait till it got to my stop. But while I sat, it gave me time to think. I realized that the train is moving very fast, and still no one is loosing balance or falling down. I realized that the only time you feel the train the when there is a force making the train gain speed. Once the train reaches its' designated speed, everyone can walk around or read a book and not be dizzy or fall. We were still moving at around 50mph, so how was this possible? It had to do with the fact that we were in the train and so we too were moving around 50mph, the same speed as the train. With this information we can understand that we don't feel speed, instead what we feel is the change in velocity caused by force. So we can say we feel force not speed or velocity.

 

Alex Gallo