On Mon, Mar 04, 2002 at 01:44:15PM -0800, Giles Douglas wrote:
> This is somewhat akin to saying that
>
> The time taken to get somewhere is dependent on the speed of the car
> The speed of the car is dependent on the horsepower of the engine.
>
> Therefore (following the logic expressed below) the time taken to get
> somewhere is dependent on the horsepower, and not the speed of the car.
> This is silly.
Except that time between starts is both what determines the pace of
the event *and* the thing that you have direct control over.
You get more cars on course by shortening the start interval, not the
other way around.
You can also get more cars on course another way, which is lengthening
the course. Lengthening the course has no influence on the pace of
the event, except that by increasing the number of cars on course you
cause greater delays in the case of a red flag.
Claiming that the number of cars on course affects the pace of the
event is incorrect, because you can get more cars on course in two
different ways, only one of which affects the pace of the event.
And the original statement (I really don't mean to pick on Barry here,
since he's not the one who's still arguing the point) specified that
the increase in the number of cars on course would have been due to a
longer course (and not a result of shortening the start interval).
Now if you could manage to shorten the start interval as a result of a
change in course length, you'd have a win.
--
john@idsfa.net John Stimson
http://www.idsfa.net/~john/ HMC Physics '94
|