A very popular ratio is the miles per gallon in a car. A cool twist to this one is with airplanes. While wind is a big factor in this ratio, a single engine propeller plane generally gets somewhere between 10-13 miles per gallon. Compare that to the corporate jet I have flown, sometimes getting less than a mile per gallon. I think it is the same jet Al Gore flies to his Inconvenient Truth conferences.
Ratios like MPG are obvious, some however, are not. Ever listen to a speaker and only hear, "ya know," "err," or "umm?" After a while, these annoying distractions are all you hear. Almost all speakers say these things but I would assume a certain frequency or ratio triggers a listener to the annoyance. Maybe 6 "ya knows" per minute would draw attention? Stephen Strasburg, the young phenom pitcher grabbed my attention with 29 "ya knows" in an interview recently. I have no idea what he said because I was so annoyed and started counting. This is something to think about when you are trying to effectively communicate with someone.
Being in college and an athlete, eating economically and quickly is very important to me. Since time and money are limited, I look to two key ratios. Dish to calorie and calorie per dollar. Why eat eggs on a plate when you can eat them out of the skillet? Further, when I am training for a marathon, a restaurant meal hardly ever completely satisfies me so I look over the menu not for taste, but calories per dollar.
Trying to improve something in your life? If you can put a ratio to it, you can track the progress and be more conscious of the actions. Thank you notes per month, smiles per hour or calls per sale, anything you are trying to accomplish can be tracked. I would argue, if tracked, will improve performance.
While many ratios influence my life, the 1,500 miles per hour of an F-16 is the only ratio continuously putting a smile on my face.
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