--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >... Well... Robert brings us interesting aspects here which I find very opportune to comment on, so... please see below.
> For his number 5 there is another measure to use. > Speed for cars is most > useful if shown in kilometres per minute... Well... let's imagine for a moment that we had ips instead of seconds to deal with AND that we also had 400 gons to a full circle (which means we'd have *exacts* 40 Mm to a full circle!). If speeds were posted in km/ki (kilometers per kiloips), we would NOT need to start fiddling with whether to use minutes, seconds, hours... The k's cancel so if one deals with shorter distances, fine, use m/i. If long ones, fine, too, use km/ki. In any case the answer would be VERY easy on a 100-ki/day watch! Just take your pick! ;-) >... We should post speed limits in > km/min. > Therefore, we would not need to think of posting speeds like above. ONE single way would serve us all: km/ki! > In number 2, he is wrong. I just had to figure > flight from New York to > Johannesburg. Well, on the globe it is 127 degrees. > At 10,000 km per 90 degrees, > that is 14,100 km. Airplanes fly 1000 km/h so it > takes 14 hours to get there. > Easy. > Hmm... actually, it's not that simple. Why? First of all, airplanes fly some 10 km above the earth, and such speeds would technically be on a "sphere". Therefore, one would have to find out how many km that would translate into *at* the surface! (note: and I'm not even discussing mach number issues here, i.e. I'm just making the simple assumption that such speed, '1000 km/h' is a "true" speed) True, this would amount to some 0.16% difference in the math, but if we want to be rigorous... But, fine, let's forget about this very small difference for now. If one were to use the gon, the math would be even simpler. speed: 240 km/ki (=1000 km/h) = 2.4 gr/ki (it's very easy to go from linear distance to angular ones given the very convenient *straight* relationship of 1 gr to every 100 km!!!) angle: 141.11 gr (=127 deg in grades/gons) time: 141.11/2.4 = 58.8 ki! (or 58.8% of a day!!!) >... > He says bad choices will "prevent universal > adoption". Wrong. Only the US is > left to adopt SI. The world has only 5% to go. And > the US is already half > way there. >... True, except for the latter part. I cannot sincerely believe that figure, no matter how much one would want to "remind" the public that the industry is "metricated". Until I see REAL progress trickling down to public use, the *realistic* scenario is more like about 5% metric (if at all!...). Good post though! Thanks, Robert. Marcus ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
