# Help me think in Kilometers. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 9, 2009, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512 "2009-04-09T14:59:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/21 "2009-04-09T21:50:52Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > A mile makes sence, a KM dose not. A mile is a 15 minute walk. And a km is a 10 minute walk. Makes about as much sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![Dublin11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Dublin11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dublin11)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/22 "2009-04-09T22:06:18Z")
> [@Zany\_Zeolite\_Zipper](#): > > Here in Canada, all cars come with both scales on the speedo. Don’t they do the same in Ireland/Europe? Before the changeover in Ireland, newer cars had the dual markings on the scale, with the figures for miles being by far the most prominent. I know that the car I drove at the time was only two years old when the changeover came but frankly, reading the kM scale was an exercise in optimism. New cars now are marked just in kM. As for continental Europe, any time I’ve ever hired cars there the speedos were in kilometres. Why would they need miles? I know the UK uses miles, but I’ve only ever driven in the UK in my own car; either driving it over the border to Northern Ireland or going by ferry to Great Britain. I’ve never hired a car in the UK. I would imagine they have both scales for ease of adjustment when travelling about in the rest of Europe, but that’s just idle speculation on my part. I could be talking utter nonsense. Maybe one of our UK Dopers could tell us. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/23 "2009-04-09T22:14:30Z")
> [@Dublin11](#): > > I’ve never hired a car in the UK. I would imagine they have both scales for ease of adjustment when travelling about in the rest of Europe, but that’s just idle speculation on my part. I could be talking utter nonsense. Maybe one of our UK Dopers could tell us. Short of my parents’ vintage Morris Minor, I can’t think of any car I’ve ever seen without a secondary KPH scale. Even the most moronic car manufacturers realised that it took zero effort to add this, and that it could only be helpful for those who took their cars beyond this island. And, at certain points in time, it may also have seemed like a logical action in anticipation of moves towards metrication. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/24 "2009-04-10T06:07:59Z")
> [@SHAKES](#): > > What similar method would I use to think about kilometer? Whenever I see ‘YMMV’ I just multiply by 1.61. It works for me but, of course, YKMV. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/25 "2009-04-10T08:34:05Z")
A kilometer is the maximum distance something can be and still count as a “quick walk.” ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/26 "2009-04-10T09:13:37Z")
Get your paws on a topographic map of your area that has a metric grid rather than an imperial grid, and then carry it with you as you ramble about. Evenutally, you will start to associate real life distances with kilometers. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/27 "2009-04-10T09:57:28Z")
> [@Dublin11](#): > > Before the changeover in Ireland, newer cars had the dual markings on the scale, with the figures for miles being by far the most prominent. I know that the car I drove at the time was only two years old when the changeover came but frankly, reading the kM scale was an exercise in optimism. New cars now are marked just in kM. > > As for continental Europe, any time I’ve ever hired cars there the speedos were in kilometres. Why would they need miles? > I know the UK uses miles, but I’ve only ever driven in the UK in my own car; either driving it over the border to Northern Ireland or going by ferry to Great Britain. I’ve never hired a car in the UK. I would imagine they have both scales for ease of adjustment when travelling about in the rest of Europe, but that’s just idle speculation on my part. I could be talking utter nonsense. Maybe one of our UK Dopers could tell us. When I drove across Ireland (1999) the speedo was in miles and the signs were in both kilometres and miles per hour. I wondered why I was getting to places so quickly. I was doing mph instead of kph. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/28 "2009-04-10T10:38:56Z")
To a _very_ rough approximation, just think of a kilometre as being half a mile. That’s under by a quarter, it’s really five-eighths, but that should give you a handle on it. Per **Kyrie** ’s [post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11021089&postcount=5), Americans of a certain age will have 55mph clearly printed on their brain. That’s as near to 90kph as makes no never-mind (and that is the French out-of-town single-carriageway speed limit). ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/29 "2009-04-10T19:26:44Z")
> [@Chez\_Guevara](#): > > Whenever I see ‘YMMV’ I just multiply by 1.61. > > It works for me but, of course, YKMV. What is that word? Kilometerage? Actually a serious question. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/30 "2009-04-10T19:37:30Z")
> [@](#): > > When I drove across Ireland (1999) the speedo was in miles and the signs were in both kilometres and miles per hour. I wondered why I was getting to places so quickly. I was doing mph instead of kph. On the other side of the issue, when I was in Ireland, at one point we got stuck behind a car on the motorway that was just crawling along. Eventually we figured out why: The car had German plates, so naturally the driver had assumed that the MPH speed limit was KPH. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/31 "2009-04-10T20:14:23Z")
I always remember it as a 5k race ( a common length) is 3.1 miles. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/32 "2009-04-10T21:23:47Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > What is that word? Kilometerage? > > Actually a serious question. In Canada, where we use metric but used to use imperial, we still call it milage. ---
**Author:** ![tetranz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@tetranz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tetranz)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/33 "2009-04-10T21:27:38Z")
Back in the distant past when New Zealand changed to metric, I recall seeing a speed limit sign at the entrance to the fuel storage depot on the Auckland waterfront. The posted speed limit was 8.047 kph 🙂 Someone had obviously converted from 5 mph. I’m not sure if it was a joke or they didn’t realise the sillyness of that level of precision. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/34 "2009-04-10T21:48:47Z")
The arterial roads (the old concession roads and side roads) in suburban Toronto are spaced 2 km apart. This is because they were laid out in a grid using some English or Imperial unit that worked out that way, not because the surveyors were using metric. But it’s handy. > [@Muffin](#): > > In Canada, where we use metric but used to use imperial, we still call it milage. Yeah, we call it ‘mileage’ even though it isn’t in miles. Just as we say ‘film footage’, even though it is no longer measured in feet, or, for that matter, isn’t really film either. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/35 "2009-04-11T01:05:13Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > What is that word? Kilometerage? Kilometrage. Not that I’ve ever used the term before today. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2009, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/36 "2009-04-11T08:27:28Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > The arterial roads (the old concession roads and side roads) in suburban Toronto are spaced 2 km apart. This is because they were laid out in a grid using some English or Imperial unit that worked out that way, not because the surveyors were using metric. But it’s handy. 1000 acre squares would have sides of 10 furlongs, or 2012 metres, so perhaps this is what was used. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2009, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/37 "2009-04-11T11:39:28Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > 1000 acre squares would have sides of 10 furlongs, or 2012 metres, so perhaps this is what was used. Yes, you are correct. In Ontario, concession roads were determined by lot size, which in turn was calculated in acres (10 square chains or one square furlong equal one acre). In Ontario there were various standard lot sizes in different periods, but quite often a lot would be 100 acres with frontage of 20 chains and depth of 50 chains. Concessions roads were placed every so many lots, again depending on which period of time the area was surveyed. Often they were placed every five lots, meaning every 100 chain where the frontage for each lot was 20 chains. Since a chain is 66 feet, this means that the concessions were often 6600 feet apart, which as **GorillaMan** has pointed out, happens to be just a tad over 2 kilometers. This is just coincidence though, for there never was any direct connection between feet and chains on one hand and kilometers on the other. For a look at what sections were typical of which periods, have a boo at: [http://www.generations.on.ca/genealogy/genealogy-land.htm](http://www.generations.on.ca/genealogy/genealogy-land.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2009, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/38 "2009-04-11T11:56:55Z")
If you happen to know the Fibonacci series, 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,… (each term the sum of the two preceding) then it is useful to know that the ratio of successive terms is quite close to the ratio of a km to a mile. So when I saw that the Confederation Bridge (between New Brunswick and Prince Edeard Island) was 13.8 km, I automatically translated that to 8.5 miles. And when a visitor from the US asked me to translate a sign that said Ottawa 168 km, I was able to answer 105 miles instantly. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/39 "2009-04-11T14:06:02Z")
I grew up in Salt Lake where there are 7 city blocks to the mile, and that’s where I get my sense of distance. It helps me to think that one km is about 4.4 blocks. Obvious this doesn’t help anyone who didn’t grow up there. Or, like me, you could live in Japan for 20 years. Humm, I seem to not be very helpful tonight. Maybe take up running? I used to run on a jogging path along a river which was marked in 100 m increments. That helped. ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512/40 "2009-04-12T16:12:02Z")
Up in the wilds of British Columbia the Canadian Ferry System marks all the distances on their ferry boats in feet only, not meters. When the ticket taker asks you the lenght of your car + boat combination, she wants the answer in feet and inches. Then if you go into a fishing tackle store and buy a downrigger ball, you will find all of these are labeled in pounds, not kilograms. Ditto for fishing weights, labeled in ounces only. But legal sizes for fishes are given in centimeters and speed limits in kph. Weird country. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-think-in-kilometers/492512.md?page=3)