The Ghost In The Machine" <ewill3@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:pan.2006.05.29.02.25.09.944710@earthlink.net...
| On Mon, 29 May 2006 00:14:10 +0000, The Sorcerer wrote:
|
| >
| > "The Ghost In The Machine" <ewill3@earthlink.net> wrote in message
| > news:pan.2006.05.28.21.50.52.356417@earthlink.net...
| > | Herewith several problems for the assemblage -- you know who you are.
| > |
| > | [1] I travel from Atlanta to Boston, then back to Atlanta.  Assuming 2200
| > | miles total [*] and 44 hours driving time (not counting stops for lunch
| > | and sleeping), how do I calculate my average speed?
| >
| > Your AVERAGE speed is zero. The calculation is simple.
|
| Ahem.
|
| http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Speed.html
| http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Velocity.html

Nothing there about average speed.
Ahem what?

|
| See question #5.

No.

|
| > The distance from Atlanta to Atlanta is zero.
| > You are probably be more interested in your instantaneous speed
| > as recorded by the car's speedometer to avoid a speeding ticket
| > but there is nothing average about that. One cannot get on the
| > turnpike, get a time stamped reciept and use that in a court of law
| > to prove you were not speeding, it will not work.
|
| Standard measurements of the instantaneous speed, as much as they are
| technologically possible, are done by a radar gun or by the officer
| paralleling the car checked for a short time, about 1 minute maybe at most

So what? Your question was about average speed. I've answered it.

|
| >
| > |
| > | [2] A friend travels from Chicago to Detroit, meets a friend there, then
| > | travels back. Assuming 280 miles and 5 hours, 36 minute driving time (not
| > | counting stopping for lunch with said friend), how do I calculate his or
| > | her average speed?
| >
| > It's still zero <shrug>
| >
| > [rest snipped.]
| >
| > Here's a better one:
| >  http://www.jimloy.com/geometry/every.htm
| >
| > Oops, that's too hard for you...
| >  This one:
| >  http://204.241.96.11/jokes.html
| >
| > If you drive on a trip at 25 miles per hour for the first half of the
| > distance, how fast must you travel over the second half to average 50 miles
| > per hour for the whole trip?
|
| Zero mph, of course.  The trip is a round trip and the distance is zero.

Wrong. For a round trip the average is 0 mph, not 50 mph.
Nobody (except you) said it was a round trip. Try again.
How fast how fast must you travel over the second half to average 50
miles per hour for the whole trip?
Androcles.