Silvertip
Supreme Mariner
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2003
- Messages
- 28,762
I recently spent a week fishing in Northern Wisconsin and while waiting out a cloud burst, I picked up a copy of Go Boating magazine and thumbed through it. The following article about a "6-Minute Rule" caught my eye. Here is the article which was titled "Are We There Yet?"
The following article was copied from
Bow Shots ? Go Boating Magazine (2006 ? eighth issue)
Are We There Yet?
If you?re like the millions of Americans who think that it?s no accident ?math? is a four-letter word, you?ll be glad to know there is an easy time-to-destination calculation you can use without forcing your first mate to break out a calculator.
The 6-minute Rule, as it?s called, allows you to quickly determine how long it will take you to get to a set location as long as you know your speed and the distance to go. All you need to know is that one tenth (0.1) of an hour is 6 minutes, which means that your boat will do one tenth of its MPH in distance every 6 minutes.
Say you?re cruising at an efficient 29 MPH, right where you get the best gas mileage. That means you?re going 2.9 miles every 6 minutes ? just call it 3 miles every 6 minutes. Now say you know it?s only about 35 miles to the marina where you plan to have lunch. You know 3 miles will go into 35 abut 12 times, and 12 times 6 is 72 minutes. So, you should reach the marina in about 1:10 to 1:15.
Here is my response to this nonsense.
I certainly don?t disagree that many Americans are numerically challenged. But with this example you are forced to do three calculations rather than one that can easily be done in ones head (even with a nasty hangover). If one is running 29 MPH (just call it 30) and the marina is about 35 miles away. Duh ? seems to me you will be there in a tick over an hour. If you are running at 10 mph that same trip takes 3.5 hours and at 40 MPH just a tick under an hour. And if you need to calculate closer than that you have some other issues you need to contend with. If you had 100 miles to go while running at 20 mph the trip takes 5 hours. At 35 MPH that hundred mile trip takes a tick under 3 hours. Yes, 35 (mph) x 3 (hours = 105 (miles). That last example is as easy as saying to ones self, self -- if I?m going 35 MPH, in 2 hours I?d go 70 miles. Add another hour (now 3 hours) I?ve gone 105 miles.
Now, unlike the person or persons that went sleepless a night or two coming up with the ?six-minute scheme?, I give the boating public a little more credit, except for Go Boating magazine editors who apparently fall into the ?math-challenged? category otherwise they would not bother publishing the article. People reading Go Boating magazine probably have at least an eighth grade education and can easily perform a simple long division problem in their head. Those that can?t certainly can?t comprehend the six-minute calculation either. Moreover, they probably don?t own a boat and if they do, it?s of a size that doesn?t require calculation of time-to-destination because he/she can see the destination.
The following article was copied from
Bow Shots ? Go Boating Magazine (2006 ? eighth issue)
Are We There Yet?
If you?re like the millions of Americans who think that it?s no accident ?math? is a four-letter word, you?ll be glad to know there is an easy time-to-destination calculation you can use without forcing your first mate to break out a calculator.
The 6-minute Rule, as it?s called, allows you to quickly determine how long it will take you to get to a set location as long as you know your speed and the distance to go. All you need to know is that one tenth (0.1) of an hour is 6 minutes, which means that your boat will do one tenth of its MPH in distance every 6 minutes.
Say you?re cruising at an efficient 29 MPH, right where you get the best gas mileage. That means you?re going 2.9 miles every 6 minutes ? just call it 3 miles every 6 minutes. Now say you know it?s only about 35 miles to the marina where you plan to have lunch. You know 3 miles will go into 35 abut 12 times, and 12 times 6 is 72 minutes. So, you should reach the marina in about 1:10 to 1:15.
Here is my response to this nonsense.
I certainly don?t disagree that many Americans are numerically challenged. But with this example you are forced to do three calculations rather than one that can easily be done in ones head (even with a nasty hangover). If one is running 29 MPH (just call it 30) and the marina is about 35 miles away. Duh ? seems to me you will be there in a tick over an hour. If you are running at 10 mph that same trip takes 3.5 hours and at 40 MPH just a tick under an hour. And if you need to calculate closer than that you have some other issues you need to contend with. If you had 100 miles to go while running at 20 mph the trip takes 5 hours. At 35 MPH that hundred mile trip takes a tick under 3 hours. Yes, 35 (mph) x 3 (hours = 105 (miles). That last example is as easy as saying to ones self, self -- if I?m going 35 MPH, in 2 hours I?d go 70 miles. Add another hour (now 3 hours) I?ve gone 105 miles.
Now, unlike the person or persons that went sleepless a night or two coming up with the ?six-minute scheme?, I give the boating public a little more credit, except for Go Boating magazine editors who apparently fall into the ?math-challenged? category otherwise they would not bother publishing the article. People reading Go Boating magazine probably have at least an eighth grade education and can easily perform a simple long division problem in their head. Those that can?t certainly can?t comprehend the six-minute calculation either. Moreover, they probably don?t own a boat and if they do, it?s of a size that doesn?t require calculation of time-to-destination because he/she can see the destination.
Sometimes they go out of their way so they have something to write about I think. I too try to do these "complex" mathematical equations in my head.
