Miles (MPH) vs Kilometers (KPH)

Isn't the speedometer dual?

My dad's is pseudo-analog. Press a button and the needle jumps to km/h range and the "mph" led switches to "kmh". But then again, he's driving a big luxury boat. Anything under 25K isn't likely to have this sort of neat technology.

megahiper wrote in news:1_591414 snipped-for-privacy@autoforumz.com:

All Toyotas I've ever seen have dual-labeling. Or are you driving a continental car in Britain? If so, memorize this:

30mphPkm/h 35 = 60 45 = 70 50 = 80 60 = 100 70 = 110

It's not that hard once you get used to it.

When I was learning to drive, Canada was in the middle of converting their road signs to Metric. My instructor taught me a quick way of converting the signs if you had a car with an Imperial speedometer (which we did): Drop the zero and multiply by six. So, 70km/h becomes 7, then 7x6Bmph. You can round up to the nearest 5.

There seems to be nothing that simple going the other way, though.

Sure... A Km is slightly more than one half of a mile...so you can cobble an estimate together...

Aren't there two sets of numbers on the speedo face? One set is large and the other set is small. The small numbers in the USA are KPH, my guess is that the small numbers in other markets would be MPH.

Gord Beaman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

You could...

Let's see...One mile is 1.609km. That's one-and-a-half, plus about ten percent.

I want to keep my mental gymnastics to a minimum, 'cause I'm weak with math, so I'll work with halves and other easy stuff.

If we take 60mph as an example, I'd do this:

60 plus half of it again (one-and-a-half), so 60 + 30 = 90 Now I'd take the original, strip off the zero, making 6 (10% of 60). 90 + 6 = 96km/h Then I'd round up to the nearest even number, so 100km/h. 100km/h is 62mph. Close enough.

Try 50mph:

50 + 25 + 5 = 80km/h. Right on the dot.

------------------------- Now if the number was odd, like 35mph, a common speed limit in town, I'd round up to 40, then do the one-and-a-half thing, but not add the ten percent.

40 + 20 = 60 60km/h is 37mph. Close enough.

Let's try 45mph. Round up to 50

50 + 25 = 75 75km/h is almost 47mph. Close enough.

How about Michigan's 75mph?

80 + 40 = 120km/h. It works!

Am I brilliant or what? ;^)

Um...or what?

Hey! hey!...I helped...are WE brilliant or what?... :)

BTW...how about temperature?...from C to F...double the C and add

30 (not too bad), if you want accurate...after the above, if the results fall in the 60 range then minus one, if in the 70 range, minus 2, if in the 80's, minus 3 and in the 90's, minus 4.

Comes close enough...for F to C, minus 30 and split the remainder. Or for more accuracy do the minus 4 for the 90's, 3 for the 80's etc.

BTW, although I was raised with F (Canada) I now like C much better, makes more sense, water freezes at 0, boils at 100, the graduations between degrees are approx double (you don't need those fine graduations as found in F)

That's correct for Canada...

Gord Beaman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Oh, OK, *we're* brilliant.

Good...but there's a problem in the minuses.

I guess it's a matter of perception and preference. Metric is easier if you have to convert between units, but the need to do that is very rare unless you're doing some sort of calculation, at which point you've usually got a calculator or pencil handy anyway.

In daily life I don't think it makes a hill of beans of difference which system gets used. Most daily measurements stay in one unit, with no conversion. Gas in gallons or liters, distances in miles or km, etc. Even if you're building a house, you'll leave your measurements in inches/feet- and-inches or m/mm. For most measurement, all you're doing is a straight substitution of one system for the other. If you drive a car you make sure your speedometer (reasonably) matches a number on a sign. Remember those little vinyl stick-on numbers you used to put over your speedometer so you could correct for the new mismatch when all the signs went metric? Straight substitution.

I was fine with Imperial and see no reason to change it.

Gord Beaman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

...and the US, for Japanese and domestic cars.

All the European cars (German, Italian, Swedish) I've seen sold in Canada have single-labeling, with metric only. This creates a problem when Americans buy such a vehicle at auction up here: It's one more thing they have to change before importation into the US is allowed.

[snip]

Wouldn't it better if the scale were matched to the freezing point of, oh say, Vodka?

;-)

...

The distances are relatively easy to convert.

What are hard to convert are the 'ratios' like mpg into the metric equivalent (km per litre, I believe)

It's hard to get your mind around this, as one ratio is better as a large number, and the other as a small number.

David

My "fine" european sedan has a button that makes this conversion for me. It's easy to do, just press the button.

You mean in the 'minus F' range?...as in below freezing?...then yes...

Well, I don't mind Metric except for that one quirk that people seem to have when computing gas mileage now. We used to say so many 'Miles per Gallon', So why don't we just say so many 'Kilometers per Litre'?...makes much more sense than saying so many 'Litres per hundred kilometers'.

Works for me!... :)

At least "or what."

Since it never goes below freezing in Canada, this would hardly ever be used ... ;-)

inches/feet-

No David, it's the same...if I say I get 10 km per litre I'm looking to increase the '10', same for Imperial, '30 miles per gallon', I want the 30 to be higher, right?

It's this stupid practice of saying 'Litres per one hundred kilometers' that gives rise to your objection (and mine too)

It's frickin senseless, makes a simple thing complicated, I hate complication for complications sake.

It's just like those tape machine telephone answerers...why do people put a whole buncha garbage on there?... "Well, hello there caller, we're so sorry that we're unable to take your call just now, we'll try to do better in future, ha ha...If you'd like to you may leave us a message and please be sure to leave your number and we'll be sure to contact you just as soon as we are able. Please wait for the beep before you start talking so that we'll be sure to hear all of your message...have a great day now..."

Jeez...mine says "Hi there, you can leave a message after the beep"

What more do they need to know?...they know that I'm out for crissake, else I'da answered the damned phone myself...gee...