Now, I know the equation is elapsed time= distance/average speed. I measured my own arm and got 26.25 inches, converted that to meters, punched in the numbers and got 0.0067 m as the answer. However, my physics book says the answer is 10 ms.
...What am I missing?
2007-07-29 07:20:34 · 4 answers · asked by Diff 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Alright, so I've learned that I'm a gangly freak and that my physics books is terribly impersonal.
2007-07-29 07:31:05 · update #1
Your arm is 0.667 m. It takes 6.67 ms (ms = millisecond) for a nerve impulse to travel that distance at a speed of 100 m/s.
Your book only wants you to get the correct "order of magnitude" a human arm is "about" 1 m (especially so if you measure from your brain to the tip of your fingers) the impulse travels at "about" 100 m/s and therefore it takes "about" 10 ms for a nerve impulse to travel that distance.
There's no need to be more precise than that.
2007-07-29 07:35:12 · answer #1 · answered by DrGerard 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your physics book took the arm length as 1 m. And that would take 1/100 seconds or 10 milliseconds.
2007-07-29 07:28:38 · answer #2 · answered by Swamy 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
if the answer of the book were correct in 10ms an impulse would travel 10*10-3*10^2= 1mI suppose that few persons have an arm so long. taking your measure I find also 0.0067s
2007-07-29 07:28:23 · answer #3 · answered by maussy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
10 milliseconds
2007-07-29 07:30:22 · answer #4 · answered by Kandice F 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋