Why does a plane look like it's slower than a car? Recently, I was in a car and noticed a plane in the sky. What was interesting was that the plane seemed to go slower than my car because I passed the plane. Is there a physics reason to this?
 A: There can be only two possibilities:1. In case the plane and the car were moving in the same direction the plane was indeed flying with slower speed than the car.2. In case the plane was flying with greater speed than the car the plane was going in some other direction. The component of velocity of the plane in the direction of motion of the car matters here which is lesser than the velocity of the car in your case.Another way of seeing is (as the OP said the plane and the car were pretty much going in the same direction):
The car C can only see the background object B as coming out from the mouth of the plane P if the distance traveled by the plane PQ is smaller than the distance traveled by the car CD and the car will pass the plane also if B,P and C are always in straight line then the plane is traveling slower than the car and the car will pass the plane at the place where BPC is perpendicular to the ground. If the plane travels equal to or faster than the car then the car would see the background object B as coming out from the tail of the plane.
A: Do you know about perspective? The more the distance, the smaller the objects look, and the slower the motion seems. For example, when you are on a rapidly-moving train and you look out of the window, you will just find that objects at the horizon seem to stand still, while the objects near the window flashes by at an amazing speed, and you will just feel like you are kind of revolving round a certain point at the horizon. However, actually all the objects, near or far-away, share the same speed at which they move away from you.
