I am a massive geek so found this an intersting little fact. Maybe work these conversions out in your head on a long run if you need to take your mind of the pain for a bit. Although there are prob better things to think about.
http://www.catonmat.net/blog/using-fibonacci-numbers-to-convert-from-miles-to-kilometers/
Comments
Hmmm.. sort of interesting (and it probably has occurred to me at one point or another), but essentially just a way of pointing out that the "Golden ratio" 1.618 is quite close to the ratio of Km: Miles, 1.609.
What I find useful is simply remembering one or two close approximations (some of which do indeed occur in the Fibonacci sequence) and using these for any calculations, e.g.
5 miles = 8 km
6.2 miles = 10 km
10 miles = 16 km,
...so 26 miles = 10M+10M+6M = 16 + 16 + 10 = 42 km
yeah it is a total coincidence, but you can tell your friends in the pub if you want to really bore them
Fibonacci number is any number in a fibonacci sequence which is
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21
where the next number in the sequence is the sum of the 2 previous.
5/8ths is a close enough approximation for me, and it's pretty quick to calculate. I hadn't thought of this being close to the Golden ratio before though, so that's kind of interesting, i guess.
zzzzzzzz
The number to remember is
0.6214
Km to miles you multply by.
Miles to Km you divide by.
🙂
That particular mental calculation would probably be beyond me, but I sometimes distract myself by counting backwards from a very high number, in sevens.
The other way to convert miles/kilometers which is more manageable in your head is to multiply by eight and divide by five, or vice versa. Not completely precise, but pretty close.
I just switch my GPS between metric and imperial, sorted.
I do sometimes distract myself by working out what percentage of the run I've completed.
Calculating n! for increasing values of n is another good one. i.e.
1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 ...
Easy for me Falconer. Its all multiples of 6 minutes.
You know, 6 mins, 12 mins, 18 mins at 1 mile, 2 mile, 3 mile. etc.
10 x 6 = 60
Oh look! the 10 mile marker and the watch only says 58 mins.
🙂