This approach can be used with the airplane or boat examples. Reference frame B is the intermediate reference frame. Put into words, the velocity of A with respect to C is equal to the velocity of A with respect to B plus the velocity of B with respect to C. Assessing velocities involves vector addition and a useful approach to such relative velocity problems is to think of one reference frame as an "intermediate" reference frame in the form: One must take into account relative velocities to describe the motion of an airplane in the wind or a boat in a current. The motion may have a different appearance as viewed from a different reference frame, but this can be explained by including the relative velocity of the reference frame in thedescription of the motion. For example, you can toss and catch a ball in a moving bus if themotion is in a straight line at constant speed. If the objects are moving close to the speed of light, this stuff does not work.The laws of physics which apply when you are at rest on the earth also apply when you are in any reference frame which is moving at a constant velocity with respect to the earth. (example: a jet going at twice the speed of sound is way slower than light). It works when the velocities of the frames and objects are much less than the velocity of light. That is not too bad, is it? Final Note: This is known as Galilean relativity.
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