• PonyOfWar
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    6 months ago

    users can reach speeds up to 20-plus MPH fairly easily (that’s 9,743 Kilometers per hour for my non-US readers).

    I know you guys in the US have faster e-bikes, but almost 8 times the speed of sound seems a little bit excessive.

    • Liome
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      6 months ago

      Some countries use commas as a decimal point, but even then, 9.7?
      1 mile is 1.6 km with some change, so 20 miles would be around 32 km. If you’d plug the numbers in reverse, that would still give you 12.42.
      I can’t even imagine how they got that number.

      EDIT: Ooooh, they probably asked chatgpt to calculate that, or even to write the whole article.

      • litchralee@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        As an aside, metric conversions of US customary speed and distances are convenient in that they almost perfectly align to powers of two for typical land speeds.

        5 mph ~ 8 kph

        10 mph ~ 16 kph

        20 mph ~ 32 kph

        40 mph ~ 64 kph

        80 mph ~ 128 kph

        The other common speed limits in the USA are thus bitwise compositions, which Computer Science folks might appreciate:

        15 mph ~ 24 kph (16+8)

        25 mph ~ 40 kph (32+8)

        35 mph ~ 56 kph (32+16+8)

        45 mph ~ 72 kph (64+8)

        50 mph ~ 80 kph (64+16)

        55 mph ~ 88 kph (64+16+8)

        65 mph ~ 104 kph (64+32+8)

        Had the 1980s US metrication effort succeeded, we could have seen those same limits rounded off to: 25, 40, 55, 70, 80, 90, and 100 or 110 kph.

        For reference, common speeds around the world are 15, 20, 30, 50, 80, 90, and 100 kph

        think metric sign from Canada Source: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CA-BC_road_sign_I-106-100.svg