3289: Highway Signs

Highway Signs

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Title text: Highway engineers like Planck units because, like the speed of light, the energy capacity of a typical car's gas tank is 1.

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Explanation

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For those who are interested, 0.000000097c is ~104.6 k/h or 65mph. Also, 1.616255e-35 * 1.390e39 is ~22,466m or 14 miles.

The "Next Exit" sign references the Planck Length, which is the (theoretically) smallest possible length. 1.39*10³⁹ Planck lengths is about 13 miles. It would likely be impractical for drivers to count the digits in that sign at highway speeds^{[Citation Needed]}.

Transcript

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[Two highway signs stand along a road with mountains in the background. One wide sign reads "NEXT EXIT" above a number starting with 1,390 followed by around thirty six zeros (some zeros are blocked by post of taller sign). A second, taller sign reads "SPEED LIMIT" above the number 0.000000097.]

[Caption below the panel:] OUR LOCAL HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT IS SWITCHING TO PLANCK UNITS.

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Discussion

OK, well, my local highway department is switching to Scientific Planck units. Maybe they'd be better off with Engineering Planck units, though. JohnHawkinson (talk) 03:20, 25 August 2026 (UTC)

65 meters per hour seems kind of slow 198.84.136.233 03:23, 25 August 2026 (UTC)

Agreed, so I have changed m/h to mph. Martin (talk) 03:35, 25 August 2026 (UTC)
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