Dog/Math question

For all you math whizzes and dog people...here's a question for you...

How many people miles equals a dog mile?

I take my dog on a 2-mile walk around the neighborhood several times a week and I've been wondering since she has four legs to my two is she actually walking 4 dog-miles (twice the number of legs to move = twice the distance) or is she only walking 1 dog-mile (twice the legs to share the trip cuts the trip in half)?

Is this a trick question? A mile is a mile, no matter how many legs you have or if you walk, crawl, or hop. My husband is 6'3"and I am 5'2". When we go for a walk, I have to take nearly twice as many steps as he does, because his stride is so much longer, but we both walk the same distance.

My four-legged walking companion wanders back-and forth, backtracks, stops to sniff then has to run to catch up. I figure she goes about 1 1/2 mile to each of mine.

Jim Ricks

Passepartout said:

My four-legged walking companion wanders back-and forth, backtracks, stops to sniff then has to run to catch up. I figure she goes about 1 1/2 mile to each of mine.

Jim Ricks

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:hysterical: So true. I think they get twice the enjoyment as well.

DeniseM said:

Is this a trick question? A mile is a mile, no matter how many legs you have or if you walk, crawl, or hop. My husband is 6'3"and I am 5'2". When we go for a walk, I have to take nearly twice as many steps as he does, because his stride is so much longer, but we both walk the same distance.

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Nope, not a trick question. You could make the same argument that a year is a year but we all have heard of dog-years. The ratio is something close to one "person-year" equals about 7 "dog-years". If there's a different formula for canine time, why not for canine distance?

Dogged if I know.

The answer might surprise you... it isn't double, but half. Because you dog has twice as many legs helping, she actually only goes half as far. To her, that is.

teachingmyown said:

For all you math whizzes and dog people...here's a question for you...

How many people miles equals a dog mile?

I take my dog on a 2-mile walk around the neighborhood several times a week and I've been wondering since she has four legs to my two is she actually walking 4 dog-miles (twice the number of legs to move = twice the distance) or is she only walking 1 dog-mile (twice the legs to share the trip cuts the trip in half)?

Click to expand...

ummpf...I clicked on this one thinking your dog does math. boy am I disappointed!

Passepartout said:

My four-legged walking companion wanders back-and forth, backtracks, stops to sniff then has to run to catch up. I figure she goes about 1 1/2 mile to each of mine.

Jim Ricks

Click to expand...

Jim, your comment reminded me of a backpacking outing I once took into the White Cloud Mountains. I went with my wife, my brother and his dog. It was a short hike, maybe 6-7 miles each way. As we hiked up and down the various saddles and switchbacks, the dog would sprint ahead about 50yds, and then back to us. She did this for the entirety of the hike. I would venture that our 12-14 mile hike was more like 50 miles for that dog.

Ok this can be worked out.

People age vs dog age is figured by the ratio of how many years people live versus how many years dogs live when they have "gone the distance" , in this case, a lifetime.

So you get about 7 times as many years for people as for dogs when they have gone the distance. That's where the number comes from.

So now to the question. Assume the average dog goes 4 times as fast as the average human. But they stop and sniff a lot, so which reduces the time spent "walking" by say about 1/3 compared to you. So that gets them to 2/3 of 4, or 8/3 so far. But you gotta figure in 7 dogs is how many you would have to compare to over your lifetime, so the only thing is to assume these 7 dogs all average out to about the same speed factor of 4 that we are working with, so the answer is pretty obvious:

(7 * 8) / 3 = 18.67 but since really, people are living longer now so 7 is a little on the light side, I would round up to about 20.

20

Final answer.

Clark, I am quite impressed with your math finesse. How do cats figure in?

Cats aren't human so they don't count!

Well, this may be hard to believe, but just last week when I walked out to the road to get my mail, a lady from down the road was "walking her cat" !!

No kidding. She had a little harness on it and a leash and all, and was more or less standing there while the cat was poking around. I've heard of animal cruelty but this looked like people cruelty to me. How that cat ever got it's attendant to divine that it wanted to actually go for a walk is a mystery to me, but hey, you gotta figure if someone really likes cats their elevator doesnt really go to the top floor anyway so anything is possible.

But back to answering the real question which is how cats figure in to the walking math which is they don't because cats don't walk, they only mosey.