Expert: Abe Mantell - 7/12/2008

Question
my daughter wants to know,if your driving 60 miles per hour,or really any amount of mph, what is the distant per second?
i am very poor at math,could you please explain the formula to get such an answer?
also, she wants to know, approximately how many leaves are on a tree,I realize that would depend on age,size and type,however is there an approximate amount per species? say, at 25 years old? Do all kids ask these kinds of questions? i never remember this with the other 3,now all adults.thanks for any help.

Answer
Hello Nikki,

The speed problem is the easy one!  :-)
60 miles/hour = 88 feet/sec, in case you want to know how to figure
that out...since there are 5280 feet to a mile, and 3600 seconds to
an hour...we multiply 60 miles/hr by 5280 to get feet per hour, then
divide by 3600 to get feet per second.  OK?

As for the number of leaves an a "typical" tree... that would be a fun
activity for the two of you to do together!  Check this site:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040211175256/http://bellnetweb.brc.tamus.edu/res_gr...

Let me know what the two of you estimate!  :-)

Abe