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Relative speedometer
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My present cars all have speedometers which, with varying degrees of accuracy, indicate my speed relative to the surface of the Earth.

This is all very well and good, especially since speed limits are also often expressed relative to the surface of the earth.

Howevertheless, I would like a less restrictive speedometer. Using an additional menu on my SatNav, I would like to be able to specify any known object in the universe. It might be the Great Red Spot of Jupiter; or Antares; or the Andromeda galaxy; or the sun; or the Duke of Edinburgh. The speedometer would then indicate my speed relative to the specified reference point.

—MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 27 2015

More relativism Zen_20laundry
[hippo, Jan 29 2015]

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       If you set it to show your speed relative to Ed Milliband, it would read "Going nowhere, fast" ...   

       // mustard coloured tshirt //   

       <Pedant>   

       In TOS, the standard uniform shirt has long sleeves.   

       </Pedant>
—8th of 7, Jan 27 2015
   

       What about just your speed relative to the car in front?
Some new cars with the "follow the queue" function do this (I guess) but displaying it would cool (especially if it was done as a vector; relative speed and relative direction).
—neutrinos_shadow, Jan 27 2015
   

       //What about just your speed relative to the car in front?//   

       Yes, but that wouldn't be very exciting. My speed relative to Ursa Major, however...
—MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 27 2015
   

       … would be bearly measurable.   

       <cymbal sting>   

       <long pause>   

       @……@……@……   

       <Wind blows, tumbleweeds roll past, bell rings in long- abandoned adobe church>   

       ……@………@……
—8th of 7, Jan 27 2015
   

       This could be done as a phone app. You could then measure your relative speed against other app users. This could solve the problem of knowing the direction and velocity of His Royal Highness.   

       I like this as a social network feature so long as it doesn't reveal location, just relative speeds. Is that a privacy issue, though? If you stand still and your relative speed to Kanye West is 500 mph, he's (probably) flying. Vague enough perhaps.
—tatterdemalion, Jan 27 2015
   

       [MB] just sits. Observes that all things move relative to him. Requests another drink.   

       Writes a paper on Ego - now discovered to be a vector quantity; magnitude and direction in Distance, Velocity, Acceleration and Jerk.   

       Decides to do the peer review himself.
—lurch, Jan 28 2015
   

       // Observes that all things move relative to him. //   

       … concludes that the Universe rotates around him, and therefore he is God.
—8th of 7, Jan 28 2015
   

       You could quite easily install a speedometer that is relative to yourself. Just a gauge stuck at zero.
—bs0u0155, Jan 28 2015
   

       Some of my relatives zoom about in endless frenzy. Others need to be watched carefully for signs of movement.   

       //privacy// If the vector was integrated, you could determine location, if the starting point was known.
—Ling, Jan 28 2015
   

       //If the vector was integrated, you could determine location, if the starting point was known//   

       Ah, but we're measuring speed, not velocity.
—MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 28 2015
   

       Walk in a circle and watch the relative speed change to discover the velocity.
—pocmloc, Jan 29 2015
   

       //I would like to be able to specify any known object in the universe//   

       Ted in Sheboygan? I guess maybe with the optional NSAConnect service.
—ytk, Jan 29 2015
   


 

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