Re: On The Measurement Of Speed

On Mon, 29 May 2006 00:14:10 +0000, The Sorcerer wrote:


"The Ghost In The Machine" <ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:pan.2006.05.28.21.50.52.356417@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
| Herewith several problems for the assemblage -- you know who you are.
|
| [1] I travel from Atlanta to Boston, then back to Atlanta. Assuming 2200
| miles total [*] and 44 hours driving time (not counting stops for lunch
| and sleeping), how do I calculate my average speed?

Your AVERAGE speed is zero. The calculation is simple.

Ahem.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Speed.html
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Velocity.html

See question #5.

The distance from Atlanta to Atlanta is zero.
You are probably be more interested in your instantaneous speed
as recorded by the car's speedometer to avoid a speeding ticket
but there is nothing average about that. One cannot get on the
turnpike, get a time stamped reciept and use that in a court of law
to prove you were not speeding, it will not work.

Standard measurements of the instantaneous speed, as much as they are
technologically possible, are done by a radar gun or by the officer
paralleling the car checked for a short time, about 1 minute maybe at most.


|
| [2] A friend travels from Chicago to Detroit, meets a friend there, then
| travels back. Assuming 280 miles and 5 hours, 36 minute driving time (not
| counting stopping for lunch with said friend), how do I calculate his or
| her average speed?

It's still zero <shrug>

[rest snipped.]

Here's a better one:
http://www.jimloy.com/geometry/every.htm

Oops, that's too hard for you...
This one:
http://204.241.96.11/jokes.html

If you drive on a trip at 25 miles per hour for the first half of the
distance, how fast must you travel over the second half to average 50 miles
per hour for the whole trip?

Zero mph, of course. The trip is a round trip and the distance is zero.


Androcles.

--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
It's still legal to go .sigless.

.

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