Some People Don't Know The Difference Between "How Far" and "How Long."

They could answer "Just 20 paces from here" and again, you'd have to ask, "Is that the length of your stride or mine?" The best answer would have been for that person to accompany you to the door, point you in the right direction, and tell you how many stores away it was, I would think.

In Texas we talk about distances in time - its 3 hours to Houston... I think its a matter of not thinking, at least not thinking things through. The new roommate, who has no vision, just doesn't pay attention. We started putting a "thumb tack" type magnet on the dishwasher so she would know it was clean. There is a little fridge right above and a bit to the side of the dishwasher for her to move the magnet to when she unloaded it, but last night it wasn't on that fridge. She's trying to blame it on "senior moments" but we won't let her get away with that because she's the YOUNGEST. Then she tried to tell us that "I was on hormone therapy for a while and that leads to Alzheimer's"... Told her, no, it leads to cancer, its supposed to help prevent early onset of dementia - and her mother didn't have dementia! NOT paying attention is the #1 culprit of people! Like having to change planes in Atlanta and I asked "How far is the other gate?" "Oh, a 30 minute walk." I said: "Is that 30 minutes how you walk or 30 minutes how I walk?" She called over a wheelchair!

Somewhere I was told if you ask a man where something is , he uses mileage. If you ask a woman , she gives you landmarks. If I say you with a cane and visually impaired, I would say it this way. I don't know how long or far it is .. I use landmarks. Whenever I Give directions I use every landmark I can think of. If you ask me how far away it is, in mileage? I don;t know!

I think probably because most people expect that you can approximate the distance when they tell your the time. Unfortunately, telling the time is not right since, it all depends on the pace of the individual and whether you meet any barrier along the way. The best thing is to give the actual distance like it is 5km from here then you can decide the total amount of time that you will require to finish that distance.

Another possibility is that the person you're asking happen to be poor in approximating distances. They just wanted to give you a quick answer without much thoughts; and the easiest way to do that was to give you information familiar to themselves which was actually useless for the person they are giving the answer to.

hi, There is a confusion regarding how far and how long. It depends on an individual capacities. Actually the appropriate way is not to tell the time. Instead just try to tell the distance precisely and accordingly an individual will decide by his own.

What you are saying makes sense to me. I do not think I give distance measurement as time, but I know I would be frustrated if someone else did that to me. Even sighted people who do not know where they are going and who are looking for landmarks or counting blocks or whatever take longer to walk to a location than people who know exactly where they are going and can buzz straight there with no effort.

they dont know how fast or slow you walk not there fault. When I ask how far something is and I get its about a 5 minute walk I know they are talking about the average person, so I say okay 5 minutes for a normal person that would mean 10 minutes or 12 for me. I do that all the time, it is not a big deal for me. Or you could say how far is that in kilometers or what have you, I find a lot of times people don't really know.

That's kind of funny. A five minute walk. Although if I couldn't tell you were visually impaired I might have said the same thing. But it sounds like it's apparent you need more details than that.

I get your point..I suppose it's like Car drivers estimating a Journey by how long it would take them to drive there,and Able bodied (and sighted) people estimating how long it would take THEM on foot..They'll leave the Math variables for YOU to work out..

hi danishcanadian thats so true and I had never realized that before. I have to use a walker now to get around since a year ago when I fell face firston the tile floor in front of the elevator. I injured my right knee badley , not broken but ligaments torn and it took the better part of a month before I could again walk on it. now my table mate Steve keeps telling me to get out everydayd for a walk with the walker I can walk for awhile but not for a half hour whiche suggested so I must assume he views this in the way he goes for walks. he has no mobility problems just his b ack is bent over so he walks face down but man does he walk. he goes for blocks and hes 83. I am 85 and I can walk the block where Gold Crest sits but I am afraid of walking farther then getting exhausted and not able to walk back. Like you I have some physical limitations, my eyesight is good with corrective glasses but still my left eye has a catract. I walk for a half hour my knee hurts and I am afraid to overdo it.He said it would only take me ahalf hour to get to rite aide two blocks away and I am thinking he just does not get it that I am using a walker for a damned good reason. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I think that theres sooo many different measurements people use...yards feet blocks meters miles km that sometimes time is what people decide to think in. I know its an hour and half to lloyd going about 110kmph but i can never remember the exact km's1

Someone asked me about stuff within walking distance. My response? Depends on what you consider "walking distance." I know that things can vary greatly by person. If someone were to ask me how far away something was, I'd likely respond with about how many blocks or miles away it is. I may also add about how long it should take to walk it, but, obviously, that would be based on my own experiences.

if im not mistaken for me "how far" is like if you are going somewhere and youre not familiar your will ask how far is the place, its the miles we are talking about here."how long" is that again if you are going somewhere and you dont know the place you will ask how long it will take us before we can reach the place , its the time we are talking about here . am i right?