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You would weigh less on the Moon due to its weaker gravity!

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1.5 Relative Motion

Section 1 of 3

Moving Reference Frames

Interactive Content
Note: All content in this lesson is interactive. Hover over the glowing blue terms to learn more about a Vocabulary term. Hover over the icons to learn more about a Key Formula or Graph. Hover over any line, point, or curve on any graph or diagram to learn more about it.

So far we have only been dealing with reference points or reference frames that are stationary. A moving reference frame refers to a frame of reference that is itself in motion relative to another perspective, often called a stationary reference frame. To understand this, let’s break it down with an example:

Imagine a scenario where you are driving in a car at 15m/s past a bunch of stationary pedestrians on the sidewalk next to you:

From the pedestrian point of view, you and the car are moving at 15m/s forward. The pedestrian would be considered the stationary reference frame in this case

From your point of view, the car would be stationary as you are moving together with the car; however, the pedestrian would be moving 15m/s backward. You would be considered the moving reference frame in this case

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