Why doesn’t a flying insect smash into the windshield in a moving vehicle? ?

Question

While driving I noticed a bee hovering in my car. The bee held station even though I was going 70 MPH. It seemed counterintuitive to me. Why doesn’t the bee smash into the windshield?

Answer 1

umm well, if the bee is inside the car, then the bee would not hit the windshield because it is inside, there for it is also going 70mph in the same direction as the car, so from a referance point inside the car, it would appear not to move, but from outside the car, it would appear to move, but along with the car.

if the bee is outside the car, then it must be some steriod bee going 70 mph lol

Answer 2

Because it could see you .(all forces acting on it on all sides are balanced so it didn't fall.)

Answer 3

the only reason the bee would fly backwards would be if the air was forcing it backwards, which it would not be because the air is moving at the same speed as the car. if you stop, the bee will move forward because of inertia. if you speed up, the bee will move backwards because of inertia. you experience the same force as the bee does.

your question is the same as asking "why doesnt my hair fly back when im driving"

and your question doesnt make sense to me. if your moving forward, and the bee is inside your car, why would it also moving forward and hit the windshield? if anything it would hit the back window.

Answer 4

For the same reason if you were to throw a ball inside the car it wont fly back. Its because everything INSIDE the car has the same momentum and there is no wind forcing the bee into the windshield

Answer 5

The essential concept that you should try to understand is that velocity is "relative". That means that there is no absolute velocity in the universe, and it is only meaningful to specify the velocity of one object relative to another. All the laws of physics are the same in any reference frame moving at constant velocity, so there is no way in principle that you can tell whether you are moving or not *relative* (there's that word again) to the ground based on observations (like of flies) confined to the interior of the car. You'd have to look out the window to even know.