relative velocity
1
5.8
- noun
- /ˈrɛlətɪv vəˈlɒsɪti/
- Specialized
:
velocidad relativa
- By precisely measuring the relative velocity of two spacecraft, scientists can better understand their interaction in orbit.
- low relative velocity
Examples
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A very satisfactory explanation of the physical process in the boundary layer (Grenzschicht) between a fluid and a solid body could be obtained by the hypothesis of an adhesion of the fluid to the walls, that is, by the hypothesis of a zero relative velocity between fluid and wall.
Academic text (2005) -
The colors correspond to the relative velocity of the gas, and the brightness of the colors indicates the intensity of the emission.
Academic text (2004) -
And so we see that the relative velocity simply change direction.
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We call this the velocity, the relative velocity between the two points.
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What's the velocity of the relative velocity of the two points?
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Once the relative velocity evens out...
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And again, it really doesn't matter which relative velocity I write down, they're all the same thing.
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When the initial distance between the solitons is increased, the solitons' trajectories bend slightly toward each other, but their relative velocity is too large to form a bound pair.
Academic text (1998) -
The apogee of this ellipse would be at L1 or L2, where a final burn would have to be performed to match the relative velocity of the Lagrangian point halo orbit with respect to the Earth-Sun line; about 40 days of travel would be required.
Academic text (2005) -
The car's relative velocity compared to the truck next to it was crucial for calculating the risk of collision.
How Fast
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'relative velocity' directly combines 'relative' (in relation to something) with 'velocity' (the speed and direction of motion), so its meaning — the velocity of one object measured with respect to another — is transparently derivable from the constituents. While the full technical detail (vector difference) is more advanced, a B1 learner who knows both words will understand the basic relational concept; this composition is common across languages.
Etymology
The phrase relative velocity comes from its parts: relative meaning 'compared to something else' and velocity meaning 'speed and direction'. So relative velocity is the speed of one object as seen from another object, like how fast one car looks to pass a second car.