I remember in Physics we were taught that numbers without units are meaningless. I also remember that I always had a couple of marks deducted whenever my numbers did not have units next to them because they were meaningless without the units. So, the sign above is absolutely meaningless, according to the principles of Physics.
I don't know about other cities, but I noticed that in my city, all speed limit signs have numbers without units. It's true that the US still works with the old British system of units, meaning that speed is measured by miles per hour (mph) and almost everyone knows that. All cars in the US are designed to be on mph, but what if I had an imported car and it was on km/h (kilometers per hour) and not mph? Or I was new to the city and I didn't know that the US is still using the British system of units? Assuming that everyone knows that speed is measured by mph is technically wrong. After all, you know what do you make of u & me when you "assume" things ;)
So, does the sign above mean that the speed limit is 20 mph, 20 km/h, 20 cm/h, 20 m/s or what exactly? :)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Meaningless?
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8 comments:
LOL .. i liked how u related this thing to physics's principle ..
well i do totaly agree with u .. the signs should have units according to the reasons u've mentioned .. sometimes even if the person doesn't drive , he just gets curious to know what are the speed units of this city ..
so yes they should have units..
but in this case . common sence comes .. i mean its common sence it wont be 20 km/h ! :S
but again , not every1 thinks in that way.. so units should be provided ;)
Go speed and then if they catch you, tell them their sign isn't clear.
But make sure you read the law regarding Road Traffic rules first :P.
It's just understood speed signs here are mph and since most people overseas know the US uses mph then they have to know our signs are meant to be follwed by the old system. We aren't changing any time soon. Though I learned the metric in high school since I knew I really wouldn't be using it I never paid much attention to it. Sad I know but to this day I have never had to use the metric system at all. And if someone were to say to a police officer (if speeding) the officer would say: "Ignorance of the law is no excuse." And it's true.
marianna - This is just trivia ;)
Of course, if you drive here, you gotta have a driver's license. When you get your driver's license and do your written exam part, you know that all speeds are in mph. So it's no secret to the motorists here that speed is in mph and not km/h or anything else. However, scientifically speaking, this is wrong, because numbers without units are meaningless.
I believe in Oman also the speed limit signs have numbers without units, and again, that's because when you take the driver's license test, you know that speed is measured by km/h. But then again, it's scientifically wrong for the same reason mentioned above.
but these days u can find electronic boards in Oman roads where the units are written
Personally.. i've never paid attention to these signs on the road.. especially that am really bad in physices..both at school and in real life..
so i usually follow a simple rule of thumb.. if there are no cars ahead n all the cars i see are in ma rear view mirror, then am driving too fast, and need to slow down
and if i can see absolutely no cars in rear mirror or otherwise.. then i REALLY need to slow down
:P
LOL!
A good excuse if you get caught speeding by the cops. You could always say "I thought it meant 20 miles per minute and I was trying to catch up with that".
if its 20mph, then no probs :p because even if u drive at 20km/hr youre still going below the spped limit so ur fine
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