special relativity - What speeds are "fast" enough for one to need the relativistic velocity addition formula?

In this question the accepted answer says:

For objects moving at low speeds, your intuition is correct: say the bus move at speed $v$ relative to earth, and you run at speed $u$ on the bus, then the combined speed is simply $u+v$.

But, when objects start to move fast, this is not quite the way things work. The reason is that time measurements start depending on the observer as well, so the way you measure time is just a bit different from the way it is measured on the bus, or on earth. Taking this into account, your speed compared to the earth will be $\frac{u+v}{1+ uv/c^2}$. where $c$ is the speed of light. This formula is derived from special relativity.

What is "fast" in this answer? Is there a certain cutoff for when it stops being $u+v$ and becomes $\frac{u+v}{1+ uv/c^2}$?

Answer

For simplicity, consider the case $u=v$. The "slow" formula is then $2u$ and the "fast" formula is $\frac{2u}{1+(u/c)^2}$. In the plot you can see these results in units of $c$. The "slow" formula (red/dashed) is always wrong for $u\ne0$, but it is good enough [close enough to the "fast" formula (blue/solid)] for small $u/c$. The cutoff you choose depends on the accuracy required. When $u

A series expansion about $u=v=0$ shows the "slow" formula as the first term and that the corrections are small for $uv \ll c^2$:

$$ \frac{u + v}{1+uv/c^2} = (u + v)\left[1-\frac{uv}{c^2} + \left(\frac{uv}{c^2}\right)^2 + O\left(\frac{uv}{c^2}\right)^3\right] $$