31 Reasons to Thank Your Car

31 REASONS TO THANK YOUR CAR The Impressive Speed of the Automobile You drive it to and from work, and maybe you go on vacation with it once or twice a year.. but how often do you stop to really appreciate your car, let alone the other motorized vehicles în our lives? Big 18-wheelers haul freight across America, high-speed trains can take us from Chicago to Denver on a moment's notice, and airplanes bridge continents in hours. Once upon a time, all of these feats took days, months, or sometimes years. Let's compare the speed of different animals and vehicles to appreciate how far we've come in the advancement of human transportation! For each traveler, we'll assume that they're traveling at their maximum speed. It's not the most realistic situation, but it represents an ideal. And for distance, we'll go literally across America, from Los Angeles, California, to New York City, New York. Along the way, we'll learn some fun facts about our travelers, too! JOIN US ON AN ADVENTURE OF APPRECIATION! AVERAGE HIGHWAY SPEED COMMERCIAL LIMIT IN THE U.S. AIRPLANE Land route 65 mph A 575 mph Air route The speed limit in the U.S. varies from state to state but is typically 65 to 70 mph, though there Of course, if we take delays into account, you might have to add an Top Speed hour or two to this. are parts of Texas where O4.3 hours Length of Time it the speed limit is 80 or even 85 mph. Speed limits were prohibited from being higher than Would Take to Travel from New York City to Los Angeles 65 mph until 1995. O 43.1 hours (1.8 days) AVERAGE SEDAN SPEED LIMIT O120 mph O Albany 65 Many of your average sedans are electronically limited to only go as fast as 120 mph or so. 2NEW YORK CITY Newark • •Atlantic City NewTork O 23.3 hours HUMAN (On Foot) 28 тph O Dover Philadelphia Usain Bolt, of Jamaica, holds the record for the AVERAGE 18-WHEELER fastest human running on record, set during a 100-meter sprint. 85 mph Some 18-wheelers, like with an average sedan, are electronically locked from going too fast. Those that aren't are O 100 hours farrisburg (4.2 days) 00 Richmond Harttand often limited by their tires, which begin to fail at around 70 mph. But in this imaginary world, we'll push an 18-wheeler to its probable limit. Wirgina STREET WASHINGTON D.c. МОTORCYCLE 110 mph HORSE 44 mph For this example, we used the Honda Fury 32.9 hours The most popular breed of horse in the U.S., the VT1300CХ. (1.4 days) O 25.5 hours Pittsburgh American Quarter Horse, is also one of the fastest. (1.1 days) Some individuals have sprinted at speeds of up to 55 mph. PENGUIN (On Foot) O 63.6 hours |A2.4 mph Cleveland (2.7 days) The poor penguin isn't a very fast waddler. But emperor penguins can swim at more than twice their land speed. •Charleston O1,666.6 hours F-16 FIGHTER JET Detroito O 1,500 mph (48.6 days) ● Columbus This blazing-fast fighter jet was developed back in 1974. It will remain in Wisconsin OSTRICH service in the United A 60 mph States until 2025 or later. O1.6 hours fort There are special Ft. Wayne saddles made to ride and race ostriches. Their top speed is similar to the typical cruising speed of a motorcycle, but one has to imagine that they're a fair bit bumpier. HOT-AIR BALLOON Indianapolis. 245 mph O46.7 hours Gary This record was set by the Virgin Pacific Flyer on its trip from Japan to Northern Canada. (1.9 days) 9.9 hours GREYHOUND DOG A 46 mph Greyhound dogs are bred for racing and are the fastest domesticated Peoria DIESEL-ELECTRIC TRAIN dogs. Springfield 60.9 hours O 116 mph E. St. Louis (2.5 days) The fastest commercially operated diesel-electric train is Illirvis BUGATTI VEYRON the Denver Zephyr, which goes from Chicago St. Louis SUPER SPORT O 268 mph to Denver. O 24.1 hours The current title holder for the fastest Missouri production car is the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. Only five of them can reach these speeds PUG DOG A 5 mph - the rest have electronic limiters. Pugs are on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Greyhound. Even their top speed pales in comparison. But O 10.4 hours AVERAGE TRUCK O 105 mph We used the Ford F150 any pug owner will tell you that while 5 mph doesn't sound for the average pickup truck. Springfield O 26.7 hours Arkansas impressive, these little guys accelerate fast! (1.1 days) O 560 hours (23.3 days) Topeka Fort Smith Line HIGH-SPEED RAIL TRAIN A 194 mph The fastest BEARDED DRAGON commercially operated high-speed rail train is the CRH2 in China. It O 25 mph went from Wuhan to Guangzhou until the service was stopped in While fast, these lizards are known for their easygoing nature, too. 2011. 14.4 hours O 112 hours (4.7 days) Oklahoma Oklahoma City SATURN V ROCKET RACING BICYCLE A 6,164 mph A 25 mph NASA's workhorse rocket This is the expected speed for a bicycle racer. The fastest speed on a bicycle of any kind was 82.8 mph, set by Sam Whittingham on a recumbent bicycle. has pushed humans to the Moon, so a trip from LA to NYC is really nothing special. O 0.4 hours O 112 hours Teras (4.7 days) AUDI RS7 A 190 mph With 560 horsepower and a 4.0-liter do Springs Coorado turbocharged V8, the Audi RS7 can go from 0 AFRICAN to 60 mph in 3.7 ELEPHANT seconds. Pueblo O 14.7 hours Q 25 mph You might not imagine that a hulking giant like the African elephant was capable of such speeds, but indeed, they can ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD outrun most humans! A 61 mph O 112 hours Roswell • (4.7 days) The Anna's hummingbird has the highest known length-specific velocity of any vertebrate. Mexico Albuquerque 40.1 hours SNAIL A 0.002 mph O1,400,000 (1.7 days) hours SEGWAY O 12.5 mph (58,333 days) That's about 160 years. This is the maximum speed of a Segway. That's a maximum of 2 horsepower per motor. TIGER BEETLE O 224 hours O 4.2 mph (9.3 days) Tiger beetles move so fast for their size that at their top speed, they actually go temporarily blind. A BULLET 666.7 hours 720 mph Arizona (27.8 days) This is the general speed of the .22 LR bullet, the most common in the DOMESTIC CAT world. O 30 mph Phoenix 3.4 hours If they weren't sleeping, they could keep pace with your car when you're driving around town. Instead, they put this energy to use bouncing off of every wall in your house COYOTE 40 тph BLACK MAMBA Even when missing a front foot, a hunting coyote can reach up to half this speed. SNAKE O14 mph between the hours of midnight and 4 a.m. The Black Mamba is the O70 hours fastest snake in Africa 93.3 hours and one of the fastest in (2.9 days) (3.9 days) the world. Old legends and myths tell that the Black Mamba can outrun a man or a galloping horse, but scientists don't believe these to be more than myths. SPEED OF SOUND O 761.2 mph O 200 hours By definition, this is Mach 1. (8.3 days) San Diego O 3.7 hours Long Beach California Sources: www.seaworld.org|www.dailyrepublic.com | www.infoplease.com | www.allmotornews.com|| www.cargurus.com | www.en.wikipedia.org|| www.distancefromto.net | www.cheatsheet.com Bakersfield LOS ANGELES Santa Barbara TITLEMAX