03/06/2016

Tachymeter(watch)Wikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Tachymeter(watch)
FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Atachymeter[takimiter,tuh]scaleisascalesometimesinscribedaroundtherimofananalogwatch.Itcan
beusedtocomputeaspeedbasedontraveltimeormeasuredistancebasedonspeed.Thespacingsbetweenthe
marksonthetachymeterdialarethereforeproportionalto1/twheretistheelapsedtime.
Thefunctionperformedbyatachymeterisindependentoftheunitofdistance(e.g.statutemiles,nauticalmiles,
kilometres,metresetc.)aslongasthesameunitoflengthisusedforallcalculations.Itcanalsobeusedto
measureanindustrialproductionprocessinunitsperhour.Atachymeterissimplyameansofconvertingelapsed
time(insecondsperunit)tospeed(inunitsperhour).

Contents
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Measuringspeed
Measuringdistance
Rotatingscale
References

Measuringspeed

TachymeterscaleonaCitizenwatch
bezel

Touseatachymeterequippedwatchformeasuringspeed,startthechronographatastartingmarkerofaknown
distance.[1]Atthenextmarker,thepointonthescaleadjacenttothesecondhandindicatesthespeed(indistancebetweenmarkersperhour)oftravel
betweenthetwo.Thetypicaltachymeterscaleonawatchconvertsbetweenthenumberofsecondsittakesforaneventtohappenandthenumberof
timesthateventwilloccurinonehour.Theformulausedtocreatethistypeoftachymeterscaleis

whereTisthetachymeterscalevaluetisthetimeinsecondsthatittakesfortheeventtooccurand3600isthenumberofsecondsinanhour.
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Tachymeter(watch)Wikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Asasamplecalculation,ifittakes35secondstotravelonemile,thentheaveragespeedis103miles/hour.On
thewatch,35secondsgivesscalevalue103.Similarly,ifonekilometretakes35secondsthentheaveragespeed
wouldbe103km/hour.
Notethatthetachymeterscaleonlycalculatestheaveragespeed.Asasecondexample,ifittakes20secondsto
traveloneunitofdistance,thentheaveragespeedonthewatchusedforthepurposeofthepictureonlyis180
unitsofdistanceperhour(examinethepictureofthewatchwhichisheretosimplifytheidea,actualtachymeters
mayvaryslightly).
Foreventsthathappeneitherveryquicklyorslowly,onecanadjustthesixtysecondtachymeterscalecommonly
foundonwatches.Smallerfractionalunitscanbeusedforslowerobjects,likerunners,turtlesandsnails,butthe
sameX/hourfunctionremainsconstant.Thescaleonawatchisonlyvalidforthingsthathappenin60seconds
orfewer,andthescaleisalsodifficulttoresolveforeventsthattakefewerthan10secondsorsotooccur.Asan
example,ifittakes100secondstoeatanapple,cuttingthatnumberinhalfallowsonetosaythatittakes50
secondstoeathalfanapple.Usingthetachymeterscaleonecancalculatethat72halfapples(36wholeapples)
couldbeeateninonehour.Somewatches,notcommon,have'wraparound'or'scroll'scales,whichextendthe
readingstolowerspeeds,typically45units.

Showing35secondselapsed,about
103unitsbycalculation

Measuringdistance
Atachymeterequippedwatchcanbeusedtomeasuredistancebytimingthetraveloverthedistancewhilethespeedisheldconstant.Thetachymeter
scaleisrotatedtoalignwiththesecondhandatthestartofthelengthtobemeasured.Whenthesecondhandreachesthepointonthescalewherethe
speedindicatedequalsthespeedofthevehicle,oneunitofdistance(milesifspeedismilesperhour,kilometresifkilometresperhour,etc.)hasbeen
covered.Forexample,ifyoutravelataconstant80mph(orat80km/h),thenthedistancetravelledwhilethesecondhandsweepsto"80"(45seconds)
willbeexactly1mile(or1kilometreat80km/h).

Rotatingscale
Sometachymeterscalesareonarotating,indexedbezel.Thisallowstwoadditionalmodesofuse:Thetachymeterbezelcanbealignedwithafree
runningsecondhand,and,moresubtly,canbeusedtofindtheaveragespeedoverlongertimes/distances.Settherotarybezelindexoppositethe
positionoftheminutehand,notethemileage.Glanceatthetachymeterscale60unitslater,andaveragespeedwillbeindicated.Alittlementalmaths
allowsinterimaverages,easiestat1/4(15unit)andotherintegervalues.

References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachymeter_(watch)

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Tachymeter(watch)Wikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

1.TachymeterHowtoUse(http://horologyzone.com/watch/watchschool/tachymeter.html)

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