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Biking @ 80 MPH
sadclown writes "Saturday marked the conclusion of the World Human Powered Speed Challenge in Battle Mountain Nevada. Canadian Sam Wittingham now holds the world record for human powered speed on land, 80.55 mph, on the Varna Diablo, a fully enclosed 60 pound recumbent bicycle. Other competitors included Matt Weaver, with his video-camera-navigated bike (no windows)the Kyle Edge, World (conventional bike) Sprint Champion Jason Queally, with his bike the Blue Yonder Challenge, designed by the formula one race car designer Reynard, and the UC Berkeley team, The Bearacuda, in which two riders pedal back to back. Wittingham's new record is nearly 8 mph more than his record last year. Hopefully some of the aerodynamic technology can be applied to commercially available vehicles (cars, maybe?)."
sounds like hard work to me... especially on a monday morning.. ugh work..
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story..."
Bah, that's BS too. For the rest of us that don't live in Newfoundland, we do use the metric system.
For example, the mighty CN Tower is 553m tall (for you americans, that's 365 feet taller than the Sears Tower).
The only time I can think of where we use Imperial is sometimes with physical measurements -- height (5'7), mass (195lb) and penis length (8").
I setup my speedometer in my car to display my speed in furlongs per fortnight. Whats wrong with that?
Funnily enough, the U.S. was the FIRST country in the world to make metric measurements legal.
The U.S made the metric system legal in 1866 and in 1875, the US was one of the first countries to sign the Convention of the Metre, which established the international usage of the metric system.
So the U.S has been metric for over a hundred years, just not in common use.
As a matter of fact, the legal definitions of the pound, inch, mile etc. are based on metric units.
An inch is DEFINED as 2.54 cm. for example.
Ah, a metric boy. I've eaten you guys for lunch.
One thing, what kind of goof thinks there are 2cm in one inch? It's 2.54. Now, as for benefits of imperial: One inch is the average length of your thumb, tip to first knuckle. A span(3") is the width of your hand, your foot is approximately one foot.
Imperial measurements make you learn fractions. When I was taking a course in machining, there where a lot of guys there for whom the only math they learned in their entire lives was the math they had to learn in that class. Thanks to imperial, they learned fractions. They never would have learned that with metric - in fact, they didn't. You see, they had been taught metric in school. In Canada, NOBODY in the machinist trade uses metric. It's entirely imperial.
It's an imperial world.
Paul Anderson
"I drank WHAT?!" -- Socrates
I don't think you really want us Americans to start using metric units. Sure it would all be easier, but it hasn't happened yet, and it probably never will.
:)
While scientists use metric units all the time, the average person (me included) can't remember if a kilometer is slightly longer or slightly shorter than a mile which could lead to some very interesting traffic issues
Secondly, I can't think of one country in the world who uses all metric measurements. Doubt me? Name one country who uses metric time (http://zapatopi.net/metrictime.html)
http://www.boatsafe.com/kids/roger1099.htm
offers a fine explanation of a nautical mile. Synopsis: it is the distance of one minute at the equator, or 6,080 feet. If does *not* change with your lattitude, however, so doesn't really accomodate Earth's roundness any more than standard miles.
This post brought to you by your friendly neighborhood MBA.
This was 1995 just south of Dublin. And yes, apparently everything was close... 15 minutes away. That must be an Irish minute... minute and a bit... lol!
Where do you put the flux-capacitor?
(Btw, there is no flux through a capacitor by definition, only an electric field across two plates.)
The biggest trick the devil pulled was letting lawyers become politicians so they can write the laws.