Replies to Phil, SG and Ian :-)
Thanks for the examples, Phil. I can see where either direction can provide the information, and this is another case where 'intuitive' is a synonym for what I'm used to.' Mathematically, I'm more comfortable with positive values increasing upward and to the right of the origin of a graph, which means in the case of Pace measured in minutes per mile, smaller numbers are better, and are closer to the x axis.
As for the X axis, the most familiar (to me) example of values decreasing as they move right on the axis are also from the Garmin world. In my part of the world, the Westing (latitude) part of a geographic coordinate pair decreases in magnitude as one moves left to right along a parallel of latitude. I've grown up with that, and it seems 'intuitive' to me.
That said, I was a bit surprised that none of the hits on my search showed values that increased downward on the Y axis.
Regarding the articles: I'm not a runner, but I found them interesting as well (and thought you would too. Glad to hear you did!
Hi Ian,
Ahhh, gas mileage and fuel consumption—an almost perfect example of 'intuitive' really meaning 'what I'm used to.' You and I both went through (almost) all of our formative years (and especially our 'car-crazy' years exposed to MPG as the only measure of fuel efficiency. I'm sure you found it as much of a shock as I did when the powers that be mandated L/100km as the 'proper way to report fuel economy in a soon to be metric environment. That was the early seventies for us, and I must confess that , though I understand it, I still don't think in L/100km terms. It probably doesn't help that we live beside the larger of the two countries in the world that haven't adopted metric measurement as the national standard. Not only that, but the MPG figures aren't right because, although the miles (for those of us that remember them) are about the same size, the gallons we remember here were 25% larger than the ones still in use there. All very confusing, really when reading the car magazines from the US. 😉
And Hi SG,
Confusing indeed! Perhaps we can take solace in the fact that while we all point in different directions when we point up, if we all point straight down (and are extremely accurate in the direction we point, you and Ian and I are all pointing toward the same place!
Slow may not be fast, and fast may not be slow, but larger numbers don't alway mean faster, and smaller numbers don't always mean slower. compare 'average speed at the Indy' and 'best time for the quarter mile' at the drag strip. Or take a look at consumer reports, where many of their graphical ratings are accompanied by a note saying 'smaller is better' (repairs/10,000 miles) or 'larger is better' (mean time between repairs).
Regards,
Barry