>> If I put my car into top gear and set the engine to 3,500 revolutions 
>> per minute, my car travels forward at almost exactly 75 miles per hour. 
>> So... how far forward does it travel for a single revolution of the engine??
> 
>   Isn't this laughably simple to calculate?

Yes - *if* you can do things like compute 60/75 *mentally*. :-P And also 
if you know how many yards there are in a mile, and all kinds of other 
random stuff.

[I found myself wondering about this in the car on the way home.]

Now, if you have access to a *computer* - or even better, Google - then 
yes, it becomes quite easy.

>   Given that I'm not sure which whacky units miles are divided into,
> I'll just convert those to more understandable units, so 75/(3500*60)
> miles is approximately 57.5 centimeters.

That's the number I arrived at too.

Google also tells me that 75 mph = 33 m/s. Which frankly seems really 
damned fast. (!) I mean, my car is only, like, 4 m long or something... 
That means the car covers almost 10x its own length in 1 second! o_O

No wonder hitting anything is an instant fatality...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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