hpras wrote:Well, Km markers..... We have joined the rest of the civilized world in adopting the Metric System.
On a Red/Green note, why are stoplights red and 'golights' green? On theory is that since red is a longer wavelength, it can pierce the fog and haze better, and you can see it from a longer distance.
Any other theories?
I've heard a lot of ideas about the colours of traffic lights. First, a teacher told us that railroads used red and white (for stop and go) and that green was chosen by the guy who made the first light for unknown reasons.
Then I read somewhere that
ships used a red light for port and a green one for starboard, and, as in the question of the test given to us by mx_tifosi, the ship on the right had the "right" of way (you saw the red light when it approached). This seems probable, because (I think) airplanes still use that convention.
At every conference on traffic lights I've been, some guy has some new theory and comes up with a new inventor of the traffic light, so if you don't trust (as I do) anything you
see, much less what you hear or read.
I imagine some sort of infinite regression, like the one
I posted once about why the Space Shuttle rockets have the width of two horse asses...
ISLAMATRON wrote:Luckily the guy who was appointed to pick which color the Interstate signs are here in the US was colorblind, so even though he asked for Blue he actually picked the green one as his favorite.
Supposedly Green(white lettering) is the easiest to read under all lighting conditions.
Well, not exactly. I have the results of the tests made for the selection of colours in the Americas (in the AASHTO "Green Book"): the most visible colour is black on yellow, followed by white on green. That's why
warning signs are that colour (black on yellow), while
information signs are white on green.
I guess that's why bees and wasps are coloured that way (they "choose" the most visible combination so you don't step on them).