"Tim923" wrote in message
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It surprised me how slow planes appear to land and takeoff from a
distance. It looks like about 15-30mph, just barely moving along, but
I know it's much faster.

Yup. Something that might be helpful to know is that your brain perceives
the speed of a moving object as relative to the size of the object. At a
given speed, a smaller object traverses a distance equal to its length more
quickly than a larger object does. So, at a given speed, your brain will
perceive the smaller object as being faster than the larger object.
Conversely, larger objects appear to be going more slowly.

In spite of knowing of this illusion, one of my favorite things is to watch
especially large airplanes (747 and larger) on final approach. I just love
watching how they seem to just hang in the air in such an improbable way.

Pete