Okay, so the other day I was watching this action movie, and there was this crazy car chase scene. A question popped into my head: “how fast is 80 mph from 46 feet?” I mean, we always see these speeds, but what does that actually look like from a short distance?
So, I decided to figure it out. First, I needed to do some conversions. I’m used to thinking in feet and seconds, so I needed to get miles per hour into something more relatable.
Getting Started: The Math
- Miles to Feet: I remembered that one mile is 5280 feet.
- Hours to Seconds: There are 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute, so that’s 60 60 = 3600 seconds in an hour.
I grabbed my calculator and started crunching some numbers. I wanted to find out how many feet that car would travel in one second at 80 mph.
I did 80 5280,that is 422400. Then I did 422400 / 3600, that is 117.3333.
So, 80 mph is the same as 117.33 feet per second. Whoa!
Visualizing It
Now, I had a number, but I needed to see it. 46 feet… that’s a bit longer than some room in my house .
I paced it out, trying to get a feel for the distance. Then I imagined something going 117 feet in that same second. Then I try to think about the car traveling 46 feet.
I figured if it covers 117.33 feet in one second, it would take that object is 46 / 117.33 that is around 0.39 seconds
The Conclusion: It’s Really, Really Fast
Basically, it means if you blink, you’ll probably miss it. That car, at 80 mph, would cross that 46-foot distance in the blink of an eye, almost literally. It’s mind-boggling how fast that is when you break it down.
This little experiment made me appreciate those movie chase scenes even more. It also made me realize how much distance a car covers at highway speeds, even in a fraction of a second. It’s definitely a good reminder to stay focused when driving!
