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Glite Dictionary
relative motion

relative motion

1 6.1
Movement of one object measured from another or from a person watching
  • noun
  • /ˈrɛlətɪv ˈmoʊʃən/
  • Specialized
translation icon : movimiento relativo
  • This is the relative motion of V with respect to West.
  • surfaces in relative motion
  • components in relative motion

Now they're in relative motion, but the water's still flat.

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Examples

  • Wear occurs as a natural consequence when two surfaces in relative motion interact with each other.

    Academic text (1998)

  • The study focused on the relative motion of two trains as they approached each other on parallel tracks.

  • It's all about the relative motion of you and the rain.

    Dr. Becky

  • The plane has no relative motion to the ground.

    Blog text (1)

  • The amount of terminal weight required by the Ice Platform is based on the cable length and the anticipated relative motion between ice and water.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Now they're in relative motion, but the water's still flat.

    Robinson Erhardt

  • There is relative motion between a sprung mass and an unsprung mass.

    Academic text (1993)

  • In order to induce current flow in a conductor, there must be relative motion between the conductor and the magnetic field.

    Academic text (2008)

  • That's an observation about the relative motion of nearby galaxies.

  • Among viewing conditions, observing the relative motion between racquet and forearm provided the most valuable visual information to the players.

    Academic text (2005)

Surface Forms

relative motion singular
relative motions plural

Morphology

relative + motion

The meaning is directly built from 'relative' (judged in relation to something) + 'motion' (movement): a learner who knows both constituents can infer that it refers to movement described relative to a reference point. Although the phrase is used technically in physics, its core compositional sense is transparent and cross-linguistically parallels make it accessible to B1 learners.

Etymology

Relative motion comes from the simple idea that how something moves depends on who is looking. The word relative means 'compared to' and the word motion means 'movement', so relative motion means 'movement seen from another point of view'.