Ari wrote: (SNIP about conversion - units rather than religous)) Here in Canada we are expected to be fluent in two languages (never know that from my French) as well as two measurement systems plus must be able to spell in two versions of English (Americans don't use enough "u's"). Worst of all, we have to understand two interrogative grunts ("Eh" and "Huh"). Any wonder we are so screwed up. By the time we figure out what is going on it is too late. Some one will surely have supplied the proper conversion factors but most of the me one doesn't much care about precision so here is my quick and dirty method. Multiply 1 knot by 0.6 to get feet/second, 0.5 to get kilometres/ hour, 2.0 to get meters/sec, and 0.9 to get miles/hour. These units become a big problem occasionally. We hear a lot about the hull speed and that it is 1.34 *LWL^.5 but this is only true if the units are feet and knots. It is 1.55 * LWL^.5 if you use feet and Miles per hour and 1.25*LWL^.5 in metric units and 2.4*LWL^.5 if you use knots and meters. This is why I prefer the Froude number which is constant for any consistent set of units. The Froude number is V=(g*LWL)^.5 where g is the acceleration due to gravity. So long a one knows that the typical paddling speed range is between Fn 0.23 and Fn 0.30 and that racing paddlers peak out at 0.60 it is easy to handle. Cheers, John Winters Redwing Designs Specialists in Human Powered Watercraft http://home.ican.net/~735769/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Mar 12 1998 - 05:20:44 PST
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