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Re: [Phys-L] The Make-Believe World of Real World Physics



While entering the Garden State Parkway, you take a ticket at one toll
plaza and exit at the next one a known distance away. The ticket is
stamped by a time clock as you take it at the entrance point. At the exit
point can the toll collector determine if you ever exceeded the speed
limit for the Parkway? Explain.


I remember my mother stopping before a toll booth on a turnpike/parkway and calculating how much time she had to wait before going through the booth. She had a rather heavy foot and was not known for driving the speed limiit. I think it was the Pennsyvania turnpke. She said it was to make sure we didin't get another ticket for speeding when she went through the toll booth. We repeated th exercise several times. Once she taught us how to do the calculations we would do them for her. Kept us busy on what otherwise would have been a long trip. Would have been early to mid fifties. Doubt we were even in school yet.

Dan Beeker

On Jul 31, 2013, at 12:00 PM, phys-l-request@phys-l.org wrote:

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 18:56:18 -0400
From: "Anthony Lapinski" <Anthony_Lapinski@pds.org>
To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] [SPAM] Re: [SPAM] Re: The Make-Believe World of
Real World Physics
Message-ID: <fc.000f547409b9e9cf3b9aca0007909c89.9b9e9f6@pds.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8


I have a Kia Soul, which also displays mpg. Very cool! Here's another nice
problem, which can be adapted to any highway:

While entering the Garden State Parkway, you take a ticket at one toll
plaza and exit at the next one a known distance away. The ticket is
stamped by a time clock as you take it at the entrance point. At the exit
point can the toll collector determine if you ever exceeded the speed
limit for the Parkway? Explain.

I get interesting answers on this one. It also leads to good discussions
about, you guessed it, average speed!