• litchralee
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    7 months ago

    As an aside, metric conversions of US customary speed and distances are convenient in that they almost perfectly align to powers of two for typical land speeds.

    5 mph ~ 8 kph

    10 mph ~ 16 kph

    20 mph ~ 32 kph

    40 mph ~ 64 kph

    80 mph ~ 128 kph

    The other common speed limits in the USA are thus bitwise compositions, which Computer Science folks might appreciate:

    15 mph ~ 24 kph (16+8)

    25 mph ~ 40 kph (32+8)

    35 mph ~ 56 kph (32+16+8)

    45 mph ~ 72 kph (64+8)

    50 mph ~ 80 kph (64+16)

    55 mph ~ 88 kph (64+16+8)

    65 mph ~ 104 kph (64+32+8)

    Had the 1980s US metrication effort succeeded, we could have seen those same limits rounded off to: 25, 40, 55, 70, 80, 90, and 100 or 110 kph.

    For reference, common speeds around the world are 15, 20, 30, 50, 80, 90, and 100 kph

    think metric sign from Canada Source: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CA-BC_road_sign_I-106-100.svg