I know marketing is marketing but do you all think that add has “54.676kph” cause it is a larger number and seems faster to us US folks than 33.98MPH?
Yes. But being the nerd I am… I keep trying to run the calculation in my head. 34mph… thanks.
Am I the only one who finds the extra digits excessive? How do I KNOW they carried that kind of accuracy and precision over the whole course. 
Daniel
I know marketing is marketing but do you all think that add has “54.676kph” cause it is a larger number and seems faster to us US folks than 33.98MPH?
No, they use KM/H because that is how the rest of the world measures speed. Nothing to do with marketing…
Remember, it’s just the U.S. that hasn’t yet succombed to the metric system, and I doubt that one day we’ll have a 100-yard dash or a 4 x 100yd swim relay in the Olympics.
No offence to Americans, but miles…feet…inches…it just doesn’t make sense. e.g. 12 inches make a foot, 3 feet make a yard, ??? yards make a mile, etc
Compare this to 10mm = 1cm, 100cm = 1 meter, 1000meters = 1 kilometer, etc…doesn’t it just seeme easier?
hey we use MPH in the UK also , no matter how much the Euro fussies want us to change
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Demographically, I’d reckon this website is primarily us goofy Americans though. Rest of the world may be on to something with that darn metric system, though.
Daniel
marketing.
I’m guessing the course was measured out in meters. So a 20KM course, measured accurately in meters, would be a number with 5 significant digits. That’s probably why the speed is also reported with 5 significant digits…
We don’t have those now. Track uses meters.
It was achieved in the Tour, and there everything is measured using the metric system!!
But is timing also done in that many sig figs?
Let’s see 5 sig fig on an hour would be 36msec. Is the timing that accurate also? I’m unsure. (quite possible though)
But seriously… I’m being a pain.
Daniel
One day Canada will invade the US, and only for the reason to force the metric system down their throats!!!
And to introduce them to colourful currency…
And the joy of walking around with 5 lbs of $1 and $2 coins in your pocket…
Oops…I mean 5 kilo’s of $1 and $2 coins in your pocket…there’s that damn imperial system coming out again!!!
I can see the Canadian army storming into the US now. A battallian of 15 mounties and 33 Hockey teams throwing Molsen Ice and Hockey Pucks yelling, “Catch this Eh!”
5 significant figures on an hour means the time was measured in 10ths of a second, which seems pretty reasonable. The TT took about 20mins or so. Measured to the fractional second, that means they only need to measure 10th of a second to get 5 sig. digits, which is very likely. So you have ABCDE meters covered in FGHI.J seconds, giving you a 5 significant digits. 36msec is .36sec, so that isn’t really all that astounding. Many tour sprint stages are won by less margin than that and they pick it up…
I can see the Canadian army storming into the US now. A battallian of 15 mounties and 33 Hockey teams throwing Molsen Ice and Hockey Pucks yelling, “Catch this Eh!”
No, no, no…swinging hockey sticks. We’ll get Todd Bertuzzi to train our troops!
.036… but yeah. Perfectly reasonable. God, I love bantering about entirely useless parts.
Having 5 sigfigs makes the number look even bigger. Bigger=Faster=Buy more Cervelos.
I’m not ragging the ad by the way, it’s just really interesting to break them down.
Daniel
“Compare this to 10mm = 1cm, 100cm = 1 meter, 100meters = 1 kilometer, etc…doesn’t it just seeme easier?”
100meters=1 km? I wish, it would make those 160km rides much shorter :)!
Seriously, the entire Tour de France is measured in kilometers and speeds in km/h, hence the reason why they’d use the metric system. Also, Cervelo is a Canadian company.
Chris
Duh, 36msec is 0.036sec, but I caight you about 36msec being required to be accurate for 5 sig digits. 1 hour = 60x60 = 3600. So one hour measured as 3600.0 is 5 significant digits. So you only need to go down to 100’s of miliseconds (otherwise known as a 10th of a second) for the accuracy required in the ad. 
I also like the almost perfect staggering of the posts ragging/supporting Canada and/or the metric system, and our discussion of enginerd topics like significant digits…
Damn… But… But… the way you stated it…
I lose this one. I’m sticking w/ scientific notation from here out. We need 3.6000 x 10^3 precision time wise and 2.0000 x 10^4 precision distance wise.
Cheers,
Rap 1, Daniel 0.
Since we’ve already derailed this topic, were you ever a rower? Just about everything conveys that type of behavior. (Esp your reply to my songs post… sounds just like my former boathouse)
Daniel
I know marketing is marketing but do you all think that add has “54.676kph” cause it is a larger number and seems faster to us US folks than 33.98MPH?
They should translate it into MPH for us Americanos, I am impressed with the 33.98, I dont do KPH’s.
Let’s see.
The TT was measured in metric
Cervelo is a Canadian company
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I think you are on to something, its to fool us dumb Americans because it sounds faster. Yeah that’s it. ; )