Graph Proves Speeding Won’t Actually Get You There Much Faster
The STEMbite YouTube channel applies science and math theories to everyday situations. Which is very helpful, for the most part. But illustrating the inverse relationship between the speed you go and the time it takes you to get somewhere is a bit of a downer. In fact, social media is reacting with pure fury.
The concept is simple enough: STEMbite drew a basic speedometer. Then added another number to each mph marker, how fast it would take you to travel one mile at that speed. While it takes 90 seconds to cover one mile at 40 mph, it takes just 60 seconds to cover the same mile at 60 mph. So speeding up from 40 mph to 60 mph will save you 30 seconds for every mile you travel. Driving 30 miles? You’ll get there 15 minutes sooner. And that’s not nothing.
But the amount of time you save diminishes as your speed increases. If you really push the needle up from 60 mph to 80 mph, you only save 15 seconds/mile. So while you’re weaving through traffic and risking a ticket, that 30 mile trip is over a mere 7.5 minutes sooner. And this gets even more dramatic as you look at small intervals.
At 70 miles per hour, a nice common speed that’s so close to 65 mph you’ll almost never get a ticket, you can cover one mile in 51 seconds. But let’s say you want to push that to 75 mph. You’ll have to pass more cars who have cruise control set at 65. You’ll be revving your engine and burning more gas. And you might even get pulled over on some roads. And how much time do you save? Three seconds per mile. So for all your trouble, that 30 mile trip is just 90 seconds shorter.
See STEMbites illustrate this concept in the video below:
This video begs the question, is that 90 seconds really that important? Wouldn’t you rather a leisurely, relaxing drive? Apparently, many folks say no.
First of all, you’d think a driving safety organization or even police departments would be sharing STEMbites’ video. But I first saw it posted to Twitter by the “non aesthetic things” account, which specializes in annoying memes and videos. I reposted it and my followers were not amused.
Allen Graetz disagreed, “It saves time. Period.” And Lamejediron added, “It’s not always about getting some place faster.”
One commenter even joked, “Blocking and reporting that dude for misinformation and hate speech.”
Next, find out which states allow unmarked police cars to pull you over for speeding, or join the conversation by clicking on the Twitter post below:
