When do you need to speed?

1. When do you need to speed? How can you tell if you’re going fast enough?

2. The Speedy Recovery Created by Holden

3. Saab 340 Flight in Trouble! • Mel, the mathematician, is on board the flight • Stewardess informs him: • Speed indicator is broken • Information is vital to avoid emergency landing in field • Is there any way to know: • How fast are we going? • Are we losing speed? • “I’ll find out,” answers Mel • How does he do it?

4. Step 1 • Outside the window he sees sections of land • He knows a section is a square mile, often bordered by roads

5. Possible points for reference Step 2 • He picks a point on the wing or window • He counts the seconds to go 1 mile • “One-thousand-one, one-thousand-two”, etc. for the count • He gets to “one-thousand-twelve”

6. He now knows they are traveling 1 mile in 12 seconds Or 2 miles in 24 sec Or 3 miles in 36 sec Or 4 miles in 48 sec Or 5 miles in 60 sec So they are going five miles in a minute There are 60 minutes in an hour Therefore, the plane is traveling 5 X 60 or 300 miles per hour Step 3

7. Cruising speed: 290 miles/hr Step 4 • Mel checks the flight magazine in the seat pocket • He sees that the cruising speed for a Saab 340 is 290 mph

8. Mel’s Response “There is no need to worry, ma’am. We are going a normal cruising speed of 300 miles an hour and not losing speed. There is no emergency.”

9. An Emergency Resolved!(Thanks to Mel---and math!)