stereolab Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 I've developed an irrational hatred of Miles Per Hour - specifically when used to describe actions which take place in seconds, and which cover metres, not miles. For example Usain Bolt can run over 27 Miles Per Hour Tennis players can serve the ball at over 160 Miles Per Hour Cricketers can bowl over 100 Miles Per Hour A tennis serve actually takes less than half a second to cross the court which measures just under 24 metres - so why measure that in Miles Per Hour??? Its like someone asking how old you are and you answering them in days, or how much you weight and you tell them in tonnes! I am right or have I just gone mad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truman Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 I find it easier to visualise mph rather than metres per second etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sibon Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 I find it easier to visualise mph rather than metres per second etc... Not always. Surely, Usain Bolt running at 10 m/s is pretty informative. A tennis serve at 130mph sounds pretty fast though. Better than 58 m/s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truman Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Not always. Surely, Usain Bolt running at 10 m/s is pretty informative. A tennis serve at 130mph sounds pretty fast though. Better than 58 m/s. Maybe I should have said I find it easier to relate to mph.. eg to compare a tennis serve to nearly twice the motorway limit etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sibon Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Maybe I should have said I find it easier to relate to mph.. eg to compare a tennis serve to nearly twice the motorway limit etc. Me too. I watch a lot of cricket and I like the ball speed in mph. I struggle with km/h. The Bolt example is a good one though. I used his world record as part of a lesson on speed with some young kids last term. The idea that he could run the length of our 9m long classroom in less than a second, made a few jaws drop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caparo Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Not always. Surely, Usain Bolt running at 10 m/s is pretty informative. A tennis serve at 130mph sounds pretty fast though. Better than 58 m/s. But knowing his speed in MPH allows you to visualise that compared to a car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resident Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 I believe they use MPH because it's a unit of measure that the majority of people can relate to because UK transport uses MPH. Using different units when one is already pretty ingrained into our daily life has the potential for confusion. If we were metric then they would use KM/H rather than m/s etc. It's all about finding that commonality to keep people's interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resident Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Me too. I watch a lot of cricket and I like the ball speed in mph. I struggle with km/h. The Bolt example is a good one though. I used his world record as part of a lesson on speed with some young kids last term. The idea that he could run the length of our 9m long classroom in less than a second, made a few jaws drop. Wouldn't that mean that he'd have to be covering the length of your classroom once he'd reached peak speed? Straight out of the block it would take marginally more than a second to account for acceleration from stationary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sibon Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Wouldn't that mean that he'd have to be covering the length of your classroom once he'd reached peak speed? Straight out of the block it would take marginally more than a second to account for acceleration from stationary That was lesson 2:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resident Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 That was lesson 2:D I don't know why but that response made me LOL for real. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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