20070408RoadSigns

So I'm driving down the freeway the other day and the sign says that the exit I need is 1,400 feet away. Does your odometer give feet? Mine doesn't (nor does any car I've either owned or been in).

Odometers give decimals of a mile (because it's easier). So what you need to do synchronize the sign distance and the odometer reading is:

• 1 mile contains 5,280 feet
• 0.1 mile = 528 feet
• 1,400 divided by 528 = 2.6515

So now I have an approximate idea of how close I'm getting. But only after doing some really nasty math.

Contrast that to the metric:

• Sign says 400m
• This equals 0.4 on my odometer

And they say metric involves too much math and is too hard!