How fast (MPH) ?

[Chicken]

OK, I'm have a mental brain fade while trying to calculate miles per hour for the following:

If you went 2.5 miles in 49 seconds, how fast would you be going (MPH)???

[phade]

A little too fast I'd say.

[alchiba]

That's close to three miles per minute, so almost 180mph. Why do you ask? Did you bury the needle in your Porsche today? :D

[allan]

Well, there are 3600 seconds in an hour.

3600 / 49 = 73.46939 (rounded up).

2.5 * 73.46939 = 183.67345 (rounded up)

[Chicken]

Heh no. I have a Quicktime movie clip which shows *a* spaceshuttle (Atlantis) taking off from Kennedy Space Center and they mentioned in the narration that after 49 seconds the shuttle was 2.5 miles from the launch pad. I figured the question might come up (I'm showing it to the kids tomorrow to give them an idea of what it si like on the shuttle).

Pretty neat clip. Camera is mounted to one of the external boosters pointing down at the pad so you can see the entire launch looking down (until the boosters break off).

[alpha]

and I wonder how many of your students will grow up with the dream of being an astronaut :)

... then soon, when they are all grow'd up, they'd be an aerospace engineering major at some Institute or University... and maybe even get strapped to a shuttle to be lifted off to some planet. It's pretty interesting to see how influences during a child's age influences their whole life ;)

I wanted to be a police officer when I was little... then now here I am, a Computer Engineering major at Georgia Tech :p:

:banana:

[nameslave]

About 180 MPH ... hmm ... not as fast as I thought, but of course it's the start-up speed, like 0-60 MPH in 5 seconds or something like that.

I remember driving at just below 120 MPH once (just once) ... :D

[allan]

Originally posted by nameslave

I remember driving at just below 120 MPH once (just once) ... :D

I'm surprised your Toyota Tercel can go that fast :D.

[Chicken]

Yeah, that isn't as fast as I would have thought either, but you're right it is the start. A minute later and they said the speed was 2,800 MPH, which is more impressive.

Of course you have to understand that 3rd graders have no concept of speed. If you ask them how fast they can run or ride their bike, they come up with some record breaking speeds.

[nameslave]

Originally posted by allan
I'm surprised your Toyota Tercel can go that fast :D.
LOL! Never on a Tercel. Used to drive a Corolla which was not particularly good at speed over 100 MPH, I must say.

That record of mine was actually taken while on vacation (yeah, people do a lot of crazy things during vacations) with a rental Mercury Sable of 3.4 L. It bacame a bit shaky approaching 120 MPH so I stopped short at round 118/119.

I guess if I had my current Pontiac Grand Prix (3.8 L) back then, I could go well over that. But now, much older, I'm not gonna try that again. :D

[nameslave]

Originally posted by Chicken
Of course you have to understand that 3rd graders have no concept of speed.
For comparison, you might want to tell them that airplanes usually fly at between some 400-600 MPH even on long distance flights.

[allan]

Originally posted by Chicken

Of course you have to understand that 3rd graders have no concept of speed. If you ask them how fast they can run or ride their bike, they come up with some record breaking speeds.

I know some adults with that problem :D.

[Chicken]

Originally posted by nameslave
For comparison, you might want to tell them that airplanes usually fly at between some 400-600 MPH even on long distance flights.
Most have never been on an airplane and unless they can hold it and touch it, such things such as MPH, are very abstract mathematical concepts.

[LetsFly]

in my '78 172 i usually hit 130 mph when i cruise :D

[Chicken]

It has been brought to my attention that some people haven't seen this clip and would like to. This is a launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, the view is shot from the external tank camera, is looking straight down at the launch pad as it goes up (pretty neat view). For your enjoyment...

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/video/shuttle/sts-112/qtime/sts112launch.mov

[allan]

Very Cool :).

[interactive]

Originally posted by AlaskanWolf
in my '78 172 i usually hit 130 mph when i cruise :D

A friend of mine has a old 150, it's in great shape and all, just a gutless peace, nonetheless fun to fly. You got a turbo on that though?

[LetsFly]

I got something better, a Franklin 220 hp

XP's usually only got a lycoming 210 in them, i got larger floats on mine, so i can carry upwards of a full moose (1000 lbs)

[interactive]

I remember watching a documentary on "Alaskan Life" (dreamed of living there, closest I got was Alberta though). Anyways, I was supprised to see people carry around things such as 4x8 sheets of plywood on there floats. Makes sense, just thought it was weird. Probably some good fishing there though eh?


EDIT: Posted in the wrong thread.