Lectures on Physics has been derived from Benjamin Crowell's Light and Matter series of free introductory textbooks on physics. See the editorial for more information....

A passenger riding the subway

Describe the forces acting on a person standing in a subway train that is cruising at constant velocity.

No force is necessary to keep the person moving relative to the ground. He will not be swept to the back of the train if the floor is slippery. There are two vertical forces on him, the earth's downward gravitational force and the floor's upward force, which cancel. There are no horizontal forces on him at all, so of course the total horizontal force is zero.




Last Update: 2009-06-21