d = rt

Just when I think I have it all figured out.  This morning when I reached out to push "snooze" on my alarm at 5:30, I turned it off instead.  Fortunately, dogs do not allow me to sleep very late, just late enough to have to hurry.  Plan B.  Cutting a corner here, letting the dishwasher wait until I come home, deciding that my hair can survive another day, skipping a lunch, all quite doable.  However, the puppy must be taken out for a "walk."  This is not optional.  He isn't big enough yet to spend the day out with the big dogs, but either he is catching on quickly - and really likes the puppy biscuits I have for treats for good dogs - or I am becoming well trained in the habits of puppies, or, at least, this puppy in particular.  At any rate, in spite of an extremely cooperative performance on the part of puppy, I was nearly fifteen minutes late hitting the road.

The temptation to floor it once I am out on the open highway is almost irresistable, but resisting seems like a good idea, since there are three police forces who share jurisdiction over that stretch of road and they are vigilant, as many a student late for class has discovered.  Thank goodness for cruise control.  I confess, I did set the cruise at just short of 70 this morning instead of my usual 67 or 68, knowing as I did so that I wasn't really gaining anything significant.  I worked it all out a couple of years ago while carpooling with a friend.  She usually makes the run at 75, and at the time gas prices had peaked out near four dollars a gallon, so I was driving at a very conservative 55.  She did the driving, and I bought the gas.  I figured that I was averaging two extra trips per tank of gas in my rambling wreck, she was unmoved.  She could use the time more than the money. 

One day when I was driving myself and she went flying by me in her SUV, I decided to figure out how much time she was actually saving.  Somewhere long ago and far away I had learned, as all children of engineers must, that distance equals rate times time: d=rt - always one of my favorites for its simplicity and versatility and no fractions.  I assumed that the highway speed section was actually twenty miles, instead of nineteen and a little bit, and that I was driving 60 while she drove 75 (after all, I was doing the arithmetic in my head while driving down the highway, and mental arithmetic has never been one of my strong suits).  Never mind, only math nerds really care about that sort of thing - and they can do these calculations without even thinking about it.  I found the result of my calculations surprising enough that I checked them with pencil and paper and calculator when I got to work.  The extra fifteen miles per hour gained her exactly three minutes.  Those fool traffic signals make much more difference in the travel time than the increase in speed.  And knowing all that still didn't stop me from hurrying and being quite certain that my hurry had gotten me there in time for class.