On 2006-07-16, Hans-Bernhard Broeker <broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de> wrote:

>> Motorcycles, OTOH...
>
> ... usually have more sense than to try and go 200 km/h or
> faster

One would hope so, but a much higher percentage of motorcycles
than cars can make it to 120mph.

> wind drag turns into a solid kick in the guts at those speeds.

I wouldn't recommend it without a fairing, but on a faired
motorcycle, it's certainly not bad.

> No, the typical object actually doing over 200 km/h on the
> Autobahn is a sedan or limousine.

True.

> To give you some perspective: my Golf (a.k.a. "Rabbit"
> overseas)

Here in the US, they were Rabbits for a while, they were Golfs,
now they're back to being Rabbits again.  VW really ought to
pick a name and stick with it. 

> Mk III is 14 years old, and it's really a rather low-end car:
> this model was available with engines up to three times as
> powerful as the one I have!  But even this low-end car goes
> 100 mph without breaking too much of a sweat, on level ground
> and without any wind to help it along.

There must have been something wrong with the Audi I had on the
Autobahn.  It took a long time to make it up to 100mph.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  I love ROCK 'N
                                  at               ROLL! I memorized the
                               visi.com            all WORDS to "WIPE-OUT"
                                                   in1965!!

Grant Edwards <grante@visi.com> wrote:
> On 2006-07-16, Peter Dickerson <first{dot}surname@tesco.net> wrote:

> >> > Damn.  That's a pretty fast car.

> >> Not by German standards ;->

> That's like saying that having a billion dollars isn't "pretty
> rich" because there are people who have more than a billion
> dollars.

Not quite.  There's a difference between "pretty rich" and
"Damn. Pretty rich".  OTOH, who knows, there might even be a reason I
put a ;-> after that statement...

> small minority -- the average car can even come close to doing
> it).  If you don't think a car that can do 120mph easily is
> pretty fast, then how fast _does_ a car have to go to be
> considered pretty fast?

I'll be selfish: faster than the average car that overtakes me on the
Autobahn.  I.e. in the upper 50% of all cars going faster than about
155 km/h.  I have to guess how fast that actually is, but I'd say it's
more than 200 km/h.  We have to keep in mind that most of those guys
aren't driving at the top speed of their vehicles, either.  Their car
_can_ go even faster, but their drivers can't.  That's because there
are too many unbearably slow cars (from their point of view) like mine
in the left lane for the real fast ones to come near their top speeds
most of the time.  They keep having to brake down to 150 km/h or less
to avoid crashing into slower vehicles.  Not even to mention trucks
overtaking trucks, i.e. "unmoving obstacles" in the left lane.

> Motorcycles, OTOH...

... usually have more sense than to try and go 200 km/h or faster ---
wind drag turns into a solid kick in the guts at those speeds.  

No, the typical object actually doing over 200 km/h on the Autobahn is
a sedan or limousine.  Mind you: nothing "sporty" involved.  We're
talking about working people who value their time high enough not to
want to waste it on the road, and have the money to do something about
that.

To give you some perspective: my Golf (a.k.a. "Rabbit" overseas) Mk
III is 14 years old, and it's really a rather low-end car: this model
was available with engines up to three times as powerful as the one I
have!  But even this low-end car goes 100 mph without breaking too
much of a sweat, on level ground and without any wind to help it
along.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

Peter Dickerson <first{dot}surname@tesco.net> wrote:

> > Hmm, let's see: 120 mph, that's 193 km/h.  Granted, my own car can't
> > do that.  But you'll have to believe me when I tell you that driving
> > 100 mph on the Autobahn, which it can do, I still get overtaken by
> > *much* faster cars, about once every 5 minutes.

> But thats not comparable to walking a mile, where you start from
> stopped and finish stopped.

Suffice it to say that nobody said anything about starting, much less
about stopping at rest.  I mean, come on, since when are 100 meter
sprinters required to reach the finish line standing still?

> The car has to *average* 120 mph, which means peaking at 240 mph to
> minimize acceleration - you only need 0 to 240 mph in 15 seconds and
> some damn good brakes!

Actually, the challenge on the engine would be harder --- brakes
routinely achieve higher absolute accelerations than engines.  That's
apparently even a requirement for getting a vehicle approved for use
on public roads, because it means you can always achieve the safe
state even if something goes horribly wrong in engine control, just by
stomping on the brakes _real_ hard.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

On 2006-07-16, Peter Dickerson <first{dot}surname@tesco.net> wrote:

>>>> Why does walking a mile take 15 minutes, when a car can easily
>>>> do it in 30 seconds?
>>
>> > Damn.  That's a pretty fast car.
>>
>> Not by German standards ;->
>>
>> Hmm, let's see: 120 mph, that's 193 km/h.  Granted, my own car
>> can't do that.  But you'll have to believe me when I tell you
>> that driving 100 mph on the Autobahn, which it can do, I still
>> get overtaken by *much* faster cars, about once every 5
>> minutes.

That's like saying that having a billion dollars isn't "pretty
rich" because there are people who have more than a billion
dollars.

I didn't say there weren't cars that couldn't do 120mph easily.

I said that a car that can do that is pretty fast (e.g. in a
small minority -- the average car can even come close to doing
it).  If you don't think a car that can do 120mph easily is
pretty fast, then how fast _does_ a car have to go to be
considered pretty fast?

I've drivin 100mph on the Autobahn, but the car I was driving
(an Audi A4, IIRC) couldn't even do 100 "easily", and it
certainly couldn't do 120.  The vast majority of other cars I
saw on the Autobahn couldn't do 120 at all, let alone easily.

I still think that (even in Germany) a car can do 120mph
"easily" is pretty fast.

Motorcycles, OTOH...

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  ... or were you
                                  at               driving the PONTIAC that
                               visi.com            HONKED at me in MIAMI last
                                                   Tuesday?

"Hans-Bernhard Broeker" <broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de> wrote in message
news:4ht4jfF16gqlU1@news.dfncis.de...
> Grant Edwards <grante@visi.com> wrote:
> > On 2006-07-14, Hans-Bernhard Broeker <broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de>
wrote:
>
> > > Why does walking a mile take 15 minutes, when a car can easily do it
> > > in 30 seconds?
>
> > Damn.  That's a pretty fast car.
>
> Not by German standards ;->
>
> Hmm, let's see: 120 mph, that's 193 km/h.  Granted, my own car can't
> do that.  But you'll have to believe me when I tell you that driving
> 100 mph on the Autobahn, which it can do, I still get overtaken by
> *much* faster cars, about once every 5 minutes.

But thats not comparable to walking a mile, where you start from stopped and
finish stopped. The car has to *average* 120 mph, which means peaking at 240
mph to minimize acceleration - you only need 0 to 240 mph in 15 seconds and
some damn good brakes!

Peter

Grant Edwards <grante@visi.com> wrote:
> On 2006-07-14, Hans-Bernhard Broeker <broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de> wrote:

> > Why does walking a mile take 15 minutes, when a car can easily do it
> > in 30 seconds?

> Damn.  That's a pretty fast car.

Not by German standards ;->

Hmm, let's see: 120 mph, that's 193 km/h.  Granted, my own car can't
do that.  But you'll have to believe me when I tell you that driving
100 mph on the Autobahn, which it can do, I still get overtaken by
*much* faster cars, about once every 5 minutes.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

Peter Dickerson wrote:
> "Hans-Bernhard Broeker" <broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de> wrote in message
> news:4hq0o3Fpce0U3@news.dfncis.de...
>> muthusnv@gmail.com wrote:
>>> I have seen the Write cylce time of EEPROM is in 'ms' ie., around 10ms.
>>> Why this time is so high while the RAM write cycle time is with in  a
>>> clock cycle.
>> Why does walking a mile take 15 minutes, when a car can easily do it
>> in 30 seconds?
> 
> No that easily. 1 mile in 30 sec is 120 mph, average.
> 
What's the speed limit on autobahns, these days?

On 2006-07-14, Hans-Bernhard Broeker <broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de> wrote:
> muthusnv@gmail.com wrote:
>> I have seen the Write cylce time of EEPROM is in 'ms' ie., around 10ms.
>> Why this time is so high while the RAM write cycle time is with in  a
>> clock cycle.
>
> Why does walking a mile take 15 minutes, when a car can easily do it
> in 30 seconds?

Damn.  That's a pretty fast car.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  .. I think I'd
                                  at               better go back to my DESK
                               visi.com            and toy with a few common
                                                   MISAPPREHENSIONS...

"Hans-Bernhard Broeker" <broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de> wrote in message
news:4hq0o3Fpce0U3@news.dfncis.de...
> muthusnv@gmail.com wrote:
> > I have seen the Write cylce time of EEPROM is in 'ms' ie., around 10ms.
> > Why this time is so high while the RAM write cycle time is with in  a
> > clock cycle.
>
> Why does walking a mile take 15 minutes, when a car can easily do it
> in 30 seconds?

No that easily. 1 mile in 30 sec is 120 mph, average.

Peter