Tom, I think you should post a video of your train, taken as you walk along 10'. I'm curious to see the side rods and how fast you walk. I suspect you are not going that fast and not doing it in 2.4 secs as John did. But the video will tell us.
You guys are all getting the distance parts correct, but so far nobody has properly converted to metric time. Try again, show your work for partial credit.
Metric time? We're talking in English measurement, so where does converting everything to metric change what is happening?
Let's not forget to include the relativistic effects that make this problem so tricky to understand. E=mc2.
MELGAR
I think this thread has run it's course, time to check out. I'm pretty sure I answered the question in the second post of the thread...
Tom, The final answer is, you need to buy yourself a REAL train.
Simon
If you really want to see the speed of your train, put a camera in the engine or on a flat car being pushed by the engine aimed straight ahead. Link the camera to a TV or other display and watch the track ahead as your train is run at what you think is a normal speed. You will find that from track level the speed looks like 100 mph or more. If you turn the camera 90 degrees to the track, the scenery will flash by in a blur.
Of course, you could record the video and play it back. That isn't as fun as seeing the train running in real time and looking back and forth from the video to the train.
NH Joe