Teacher Defeats Traffic Ticket With The Power Of Math

[The Straight Story]

Teacher Defeats Traffic Ticket With The Power Of Math


Have you ever suspected that your city or town is trying too hard to catch traffic scofflaws in the pursuit of ticket revenue? A Florida woman received a ticket based on evidence from a red light camera, but believed the ticket was unfair because the yellow light was too short. The power of math proved that she was correct..

Her math tutor husband took a stopwatch to the intersection where she received the ticket, and set out to vindicate her. He discovered that yellow lights at that intersection are eight tenths of a second shorter than county guidelines require.

That doesn't excuse every ticket issued for red-light violations, but it's enough of a discrepancy to make county residents suspicious.

http://consumerist.com/2010/04/have-you-ever-suspected-that.html

[FBaggins]

1. A bit of a stretch to call that "the power of math"

Doesn't exactly take a math tutor to use a stopwatch.

Like saying that the ESL instructor used the power of reading to point out that the "stop" sign was partially hidden behind a bush.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. LOL - yes, a perfect analogy!

Or using the power of history to pull out an old photo and say "See - I was at the Grand Canyon!"

[Cirque du So-What]

7. How about the power of biology

where closer examination of the photo reveals that the car was actually driven by a chimpanzee?

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Power of math? That's the power of a stopwatch and knowing the regulations.

Not the power of math.

If it were the power of math, the dude would have shown the impossibility of getting through the light while it was still yellow or that it would be impossible at the speed limit from a given distance to actually stop the car quickly enough to stop at a yellow light and thus be forced to try to go through the yellow and the light didn't last long enough to avoid a red light.

[beyurslf]

4. No kidding! I was expecting to read how they used some algebraic formula to prove her

innocent. I wanted to show it to my boys and tell them there is a reason for algebra--it gets you out of a ticket! :)

[customerserviceguy]

5. You reminded me of something from 40 years ago

I told my geometry teacher that I found a practical use for the theorem that opposite angles are congruent (same angle). When the gang and I went out for pizza, if there was a bigger slice on one side of the pie, the slice on the opposite side was bigger, too!

She laughed herself silly over that one.

[nilram]

9. Good one. And I bet she used that example forever after!

[customerserviceguy]

10. Perhaps

I think I made an impression on her for another reason. It was an advanced-placement (or accellerated, as they called them in the day) geometry class. Somebody had to wind up at the bottom of the class, and it was me. Even though I ended up with a "C", the minimum grade she said she'd give to anyone who was in that class (who attended, & did homework and tests), that wasn't good enough for me.

I took the class over again the next year, and until the very end of the school year, I did NOT use the open-book method that she provided for those who could not remember every last detail of a theorem or a proof. I think she admired me for doing that. Anyway, I really knew geometry after that!

[nilram]

8. -nt

oops, reply where I didn't intend it.

[DCKit]

6. O.K. Y'all. The dude can count. It IS FL after all. Give 'em a break. n/t

[pinniped]

11. Did her math tutor husband learn this while earning his PhD?

He discovered that yellow lights at that intersection are eight tenths of a second shorter than county guidelines require.

The speed limit on Collier Boulevard, where she was cited, is 45 mph. According to county guidelines, the yellow light should be 4.5 seconds.

Mogil said he tested it 15 times with an average of only 3.8 seconds.

Utilizing the power of math, I see an average difference of 0.7 seconds from county guidelines (4.5 - 3.8 = 0.7).

Am I missing something here or are his powers of math superior to mine?