I consider it a narrow view to expect all values for a quantity to be
given in just one unit. In considering the units to be used in values
for speed, the distance and the time frame of interest ought to be
considered.
There is no one size fits all in measurement. That's what led to the
hodge-podge of US customary units and to the more practical use of
prefixed units in the SI.
For traveling, kilometers per hour make more sense. I would prefer not
to use meters per second in my calculations of the estimated travel time
from Nashville TN to Chicago IL. The distances involved in travel
planning are in the order of kilometers and the time frames are in the
order of hours.
For speeds of cricket balls and baseballs, meters per second would be
convenient.
For tectonic plate movements, centimeters per year would be convenient.
For those who wish to compare values from the three events mentioned
above (an academic exercise, not a practical effort), the SI makes it
easy to convert two of them to the scale of the other one. The clock is
less convenient, however.
Jim
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stoney Point Mountain Road
Doyle TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
(F) 931.657.3108
On 2014-04-07 16:15, Martin Vlietstra wrote:
An athlete running at 10 m/s can do 100 m in 10 seconds (I can’t).
Likewise, the speed on a tennis ball, baseball or cricket ball means
much more if it is given in m/s than in km/h. To put things into
perspective, in cricket the bowler releases the ball at about 18 metres
from the batsman. If the ball is travelling at 50 m/s, the batsman has
about 0.3 s to make his shot. Sorry, I don’t know the equivalent values
for baseball, but the maths is the same.
In an ideal world m/s is, in my view, better than km/h but I am not
going to loose any sleep over the matter.
*From:*owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] *On
Behalf Of *Brian White
*Sent:* 07 April 2014 20:49
*To:* U.S. Metric Association
*Subject:* [USMA:53691] Re: Schwinn 270 recumbent bike
Never understood everyone's fascination with m/s.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From: *James <mailto:j...@metricmethods.com>
*Sent: *4/7/2014 12:57
*To: *U.S. Metric Association <mailto:usma@colostate.edu>
*Subject: *[USMA:53690] Re: Schwinn 270 recumbent bike
No, that is not an option, Gene. I'm happy with kilometers per hour.
Jim
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stoney Point Mountain Road
Doyle TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
(F) 931.657.3108
On 2014-04-07 11:24, mechtly, eugene a wrote:
> Jim (Frysinger),
>
> For recumbent cycling, I would prefer setting the spedometer to
meters per second.
>
> Is that an option?
>
> Gene
> ________________________________________
> From: owner-u...@colostate.edu <mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu>
[owner-u...@colostate.edu] on behalf of James [j...@metricmethods.com]
> Sent: Friday, April 04, 2014 3:00 PM
> To: U.S. Metric Association
> Subject: [USMA:53678] Re: Schwinn 270 recumbent bike
>
> One oddity noted on this recumbent bike:
> The speed reads out numerically with the unit symbol km/h. But the
> distance reads out numerically with the unit symbol KM.
>
> Jim
>
>
> --
> James R. Frysinger
> 632 Stoney Point Mountain Road
> Doyle TN 38559-3030
>
> (C) 931.212.0267
> (H) 931.657.3107
> (F) 931.657.3108
>
> On 2014-04-02 12:55, James wrote:
>> We took delivery of our new Schwinn 270 recumbent bike two days ago.
>> Purchasing from Amazon.com gave us a price well below MSRP. Assembly
>> took a few hours but I did not rush it; probably I could have done it in
>> 2 h. In a few of the steps, my wife provided a spare set of hands which
>> was essential.
>>
>> The fasteners are all metric. The console's program allows the user to
>> select miles or kilometer in its setup sequence. (One can change it
>> later, and old data gets converted.) Of course, I chose kilometers. I
>> was pleasantly surprised to see, when entering user profile data, that
>> the program then asked for height in centimeters and mass (they called
>> it weight) in kilograms.
>>
>> I would rate this machine 4.9 out of 5 stars so far. The embedded
>> heart-rate monitor (working off contacts in the hand grips) appears to
>> double-count the pulse. We have not yet tried the MP3 player connection,
>> the USB data download port, or the resistance programs (varying
>> resistance as a function of time in emulation of terrain topography).
>> The machine is extremely quiet if the fan is off. And it is not at all
>> noisy.
>>
>> Jim
>>
>
>
