static, you access it by using the class name rather than
a reference to a particular instance of the class.
Therefore instead of writing
Car c = new Car("New York", 89.7);
double maximumLegalSpeed = c.getSpeedLimit();
double maximumLegalSpeed = Car.getSpeedLimit();
Static methods may not call non-static methods or members of the same class directly. Rather they must specify which instance of the class they are referring to. Trying to call a non-static method or member is a very common compile time error. The specific error message generated by the javac compiler will look something like this
Error: Can't make static reference to method void floorIt() in class Car.Of course the names and signature will be changed to match the specific method and class.
main() methods for testing