Re: OT: Converting miles/km

On Sun, 22 Sep 2024 03:19:42 -0700
Snidely <snidely.too@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sunday, kami pointed out that ...

On Sun, 22 Sep 2024 01:52:33 -0700, Snidely wrote:
>

Remember when kami bragged outrageously?  That was Sunday:

On Thu, 19 Sep 2024 23:12:52 -0000 (UTC), Christian Weisgerber
wrote:
 

I'm sorry, I don't know where to post this.  I'm crossposting to
alt.usage.english, because statute miles as a unit mostly afflict
the English-speaking world.
 
So you want to convert between miles and kilometers.  The conversion
factor is... uh...  A 40-year-old calculator book provides a useful
tip:  Unless you're designing a space probe, you can use ln(5).
 
WHAT?
 
Yes, the natural logrithm of 5 approximates the conversion factor
between miles and kilometers; specifically one mile is about ln(5)
kilometers.  It's accurate to four digits.
 
If nothing else, it's faster to type on a calculator.
 
I think that's hysterical.

 
 
simplest method is to multiply by 0.6

 
There's no humor in that.
 
-d

>
an easier method would be, if the limit is 80 miles per hour,
simply add half, which is 40 and then one tenth of that, which is
4 and multiply it by 2 which is 8, so 48 + 80 is 128 km/h

>
similarly lets say 120 miles per hour, half 60, tenth times 2 is
12, so 72 + 120 = 192 km/h.

Sounds illegal to me.

70mph is the max in the UK, but only on motorways and dual carriageways (as
we so quaintly call them)  - this means that the traffic in opposite
directions has a barrier between it, not as some naively think, that the
road has 2 or more lanes in the same direction).

A supermarket car park near me has 5mph signs; I've never seen any vehicle
travel that slow, unless manoeuvring into a slot.

There's no humor in that.

isn't there? if 0.6 is right then pshurely you want to add a half and a
tenth.

Or memorise a table:
(80)        130
(75)        120
70+35+7=112(110)
60+30+6= 96(100)
(55)         90
50+25+5= 80  80
(45)         70        
40+20+4= 64 (60)
(35)         50
30+15+3= 38 (40)
20+10+2= 32 (30)
 

--
Bah, and indeed Humbug.