Duh Math Question

[Jo&Tex]

Some days my hair weighs more than my brain....

 

If my pedometer says I've just walked 4 km, I can safely assume that Tex has also just walked 4 km. BUT

 

When my pedometer says I've just taken 7,000 steps for 4km, do I double it for Tex because he has double the number of legs?

Do they make pedometers for dogs?

Heaven help the Ontario public school system when I start teaching math!

[Claire Owen]

Can you not put the pedeometer on Tex and then double what it says? or would that still be inaccurate? I honestly dont know hmmmm

 

2 pedometers one on his front end and one on the rear????

[Debbie Crowder-BaaramuLuke]

I have to laugh at this one (not for your math ability though)...when I walk the half mile up to the mail box I know I'm walking a mile, there and back, right?

I'm guessing my dogs walk at least 4 miles for the up and back-to-me's and the circles around me they do, the running at/with each other, the quarter-mile burst to the pond when sighted, the swim, in and out, and same to the house when we get back.

Then again, is Tex on a leash? If so, 4 km.

[prosperia]

UHHH!! stop. . .my brain was going in circles at 7000 steps.

Yesterday, an elderly woman in the grocery store asked for my help weighing some banannas and figuring up the total price at 46 cents a lb.

I did my best. . ."Uh. . .somewhere between 3.50 and $4. . .I think." I just start to tune out when I reach the point of actually having to use my brain to figure something. I have an extreme lazy trigger switch when it comes to math.

[Kat's Dogs]

Tex would take more steps, I think.

Just like a child would take more steps because they have a shorter stride. (unless Tex has a longer stride then you.)

 

But see you don't count each of our legs and put them together, so the question is, why would you count each set of legs on Tex? Then again, would it still be relative to your steps if you don't double it (4 legs against 2!) Either way, Tex WOULD walk 4k just like you - only the steps would be different (assuming Tex walks calmly! ).

 

You could put one on Tex and see how many steps (with just one leg) he takes on the 4k compared to how many you did. That would be interesting to see.....

[Guest amylobdell24]

More steps for Tex, but same distance - if you're walking together the whole time. Think about it this way - a train leaves the station at 4:30am traveling at a speed of 65mi/hr.....just kidding!

[nancy]

I'm a literature major, but I used to be good at math. These days, most of life is a puzzlement. However, I think this is the crux:

my pedometer says I've just taken 7,000 steps for 4km

The number of steps to a km (or a mile for us strange US citizens) is based on stride. You must have had to set that somewhere. I'm 5 feet tall, with short legs. I worked with a guy who was so tall that my head came well below his shoulder - and he was mostly leg. My stride and his are definitely different.

 

The first thing you'd have to do to use a pedometer on a dog is to figure the dog's stride. However, I suspect that the pedometer bases its calculations on sort of bounces - steps. A dog has two sets of those: front and back. So, unless they make a pet dedometer (hey, can we market a "petometer"?), you might have to get more mathematical than I'm up to right now. Something like stride but divided by 2 for the extra set of steps? Because, if a stride is 1 foot, front and back go 1 foot together, despite two footfalls?

 

All said, if you and the dog went the same places - and the dog did not do all the back-and-forthing and weaving and all, you had to have done the same distance.

[Black Watch Debatable]

Whoa---a Petometer :cool:

 

Contrary to the article, Google says quadruped strides are measured as follows:

Stride is the distance from one footprint to the next place where a print of the same foot appears. It should be measured from heel to heel. [Link.]

Dunno how keen you are about this, but you could dip Tex's right forefoot in water, walk him along a stretch of dry sidewalk and "wala"

 

Then count the strides he takes over a ten meter stretch, multiply by 100 and you'd have his strides per km. (Assuming Tex is walking sedately next to you and not running/playing/exploring off lead )

 

[Note to self: stop trying stuff like this in the kitchen.]