Question

A moving walkway has a speed of 0.9 m/s to the east. A stationary observer sees a man walking on the walkway with a velocity of 1.1 m/s to the east. What is the man's velocity relative to the moving walkway?

Answer 1

Since the man and the walkway has velocity (which is a vector) moving in the same direction, who would add the velocities together.

That means the relative velocity would be 2 m/s to the East

If you picture it in your mind, imagine walking down an escalator, you feel like you're moving faster than you really are.

In a different example, if the man was moving 0.9 m/s to the West, they are moving in opposite directions, which means you would subtract the 2 velocities.