tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9501253.post112487256838800151..comments2023-10-07T06:50:50.327-04:00Comments on Do Cats Eat Bats?: As The Crow FliesSteve Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00379811212810268091noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9501253.post-1127739999219203512005-09-26T09:06:00.000-04:002005-09-26T09:06:00.000-04:00"One thing about L.A. drivers is that only time on..."One thing about L.A. drivers is that only time on the freeway counts -- so if it takes 10 minutes to get to the freeway, 20 minutes on the freeway, then 10 minutes from freeway to final destination, that only counts as 20 minutes.<BR/><BR/>That said I'm shocked, SHOCKED, that people didn't relativize their travel time estimates to time of day."<BR/><BR/>That explains it! Like a politician explaining his/her "miraculous" economic policy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9501253.post-1127628801688997472005-09-25T02:13:00.000-04:002005-09-25T02:13:00.000-04:00Thanks for dropping by K.C.One thing about L.A. dr...Thanks for dropping by K.C.<BR/><BR/>One thing about L.A. drivers is that only time on the freeway counts -- so if it takes 10 minutes to get to the freeway, 20 minutes on the freeway, then 10 minutes from freeway to final destination, that only counts as 20 minutes.<BR/><BR/>That said I'm shocked, SHOCKED, that people didn't relativize their travel time estimates to time of day.Steve Petersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00379811212810268091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9501253.post-1127601414733278702005-09-24T18:36:00.000-04:002005-09-24T18:36:00.000-04:00"And the teacher says something like: No. That's i..."And the teacher says something like: No. That's it. Forty miles. As the crow flies. And he makes a little crow-flying-in-a-straight-line hand motion to illustrate."<BR/><BR/>Maybe this was his experience "driving."<BR/><BR/>I visited L.A. some seventeen years and when I would ask people how long it would take to drive from one place to another, they would invariably answer "twenty minutes." We would drove to five different places in Los Angeles and Orange County and each time took more than forty minutes with that famous L.A. traffic gnawing away at our brains and sanity.<BR/><BR/>After the third time it came to me that the brain shuts down as a defense mechanism and the mind perceives that the whole trip took "twenty minutes."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9501253.post-1125298219478123832005-08-29T02:50:00.000-04:002005-08-29T02:50:00.000-04:00Thanks for dropping by, Alan.At first that's what ...Thanks for dropping by, Alan.<BR/><BR/>At first that's what I though -- but after a few minutes in my seat it occurred to me that the road, while not direct, didn't twists back and forth so much that it'd multiply the distance by a factor of 4 or 5. Really, no roads do that unless they're going up and down mountains -- again letting the stuff written down get in the way of common sense.<BR/><BR/>2 or 3 I would have believed, though it actually isn't even that much, just 156 miles straight-line distance:<BR/><BR/>http://www.ersys.com/usa/06/0668154/distance.htm<BR/><BR/>Another point is that the teacher had an excellent opportunity here to illustrate the scientific method. Sometimes we'll be faced with claims that are questionable -- in those cases we should question them, and that takes the form of trying to replicate and verify experiments. In this case, simply going to check the given map against other maps or other sources of information.Steve Petersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00379811212810268091noreply@blogger.com