What I mean is if a police officer wants to know how long it takes you to drive one kilometre (or mile), they would need to record the time it takes you to travel an actual km or mile. If they have clocked your speed at a radar point they should really be talking metres-yards/sec, since this is all they have seen you travel. Speed or velocity is a measure of distance divided by time. If you have travelled slowly for half a mile, and accelerated past a radar trap, could you not argue that your average speed over a whole mile was within the limit. Also you could not be convicted of speeding at a precise time, say 4.00PM, because at a point in time you do not travel any distance
2006-12-25 16:47:44 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Michael K, I didn't say at 'no point in time'. What I mean is that velocity is a measure of distance travelled divided by time passed. At a precise point in time your speed cannot be measured since no time has passed no distance has been travelled. If someone says 'your were travelling 70 mph at precisely 4.00PM' they are wrong. If they say, 'you were travelling at 70 mph when I recorded your speed between 4.00PH and 4.01PM' they might have a point.
2006-12-25 17:18:25 · update #1
It's not the avg speed limit, its the speed limit. Meaning at no time can you go over it. Based on your logic if I'm stuck in traffic going like 5mph for half my trip i should be able to go like 200mph for the rest of it because the whole avg of the trip is less then the speed limit. That wont fly.
As for "at no point in time do you travel any distance" you should try that on the judge and see what he says.
2006-12-25 16:56:17 · answer #1 · answered by Michael K 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
No silly, you are confusing the units of measure with the method of measure.
There is no reason to demand that miles/hour be measured over a mile (except in speed records where they want exceptional accuracy and a desire to see if the car will go that far.) For example, drag racing speeds are measured for a few yards on either side of the quarter mile finish line. If you take the number of seconds of the run and divide it into 1/4 mile and convert to hours, you can get the average speed.
If I measure your speed over 5.28 feet (1/1000 of a mile) and it takes 0.000016667 hours (more commonly .04 seconds), then you are going 60 miles per hour. The same thing applies if I measure your speed for 0.00001 seconds with a radar gun.
Don't try this in court as it has long since been attempted and failed.
2006-12-26 01:06:42 · answer #2 · answered by Mike1942f 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Nope...the speed is easily translated from one measure to another. Speed is not generally measured by watching you travel "so many" mile OR kilometers in one hour, speed is measured as an instantaneous measure with a radar gun. The gun is so calibrated to know that when multiple radar signals are bounced off your car, it knows exactly how far you are away from the gun each time and at what thousanth of a second the measurement took place. The change in distance divided by the time difference can be concverted to MPH or KM/.HR easily.
Keep dreaming.
2006-12-26 00:58:46 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Such an argument could possibly work in vascar enforced areas, where your speed is determined by the time you entered the zone, exited the zone, and the distance traveled (AVERAGE velocity). However, when clocked by a radar gun the speed that it is reading is your INSTANTANEOUS velocity. That is, your speed at that exact moment. Although you may have only traveled a meter during the time it takes for the radar gun to get your speed, when converted into miles per hour (or kilometers per hour) that is still your speed at that exact instant.
If a baseball pitcher throws a fastball at 90 MPH, that doesn't mean you'd have to go 90 miles to figure out if that number is correct. Its instantaneous vs. average velocities.
2006-12-26 00:55:06 · answer #4 · answered by JoeSchmo5819 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If they used a LIDAR (infrared laser) then your speed was measured 40 times in the space of one third of a second. The speed displayed on the device is some statistical analysis of those 40 measurements to eliminate erroneous data. They are really quite the wonder, unless you are on the receiving end of a ticket. The only way to beat it is with legal procedure. Get a lawyer who specializes in speeding cases.
2006-12-26 00:58:08 · answer #5 · answered by Neebler 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Um.No. It has nothing to do with averages but the speed you were clocked at when youi were caught.
2006-12-26 00:51:09 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The judge will probably get a laugh out of your argument before he slaps the fine on you.
2006-12-26 00:52:50 · answer #7 · answered by Stan the Rocker 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
None of that matters at all. If you are speeding when they catch you, that's all that counts.
2006-12-26 00:56:22 · answer #8 · answered by Debbie B 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋