This question stemmed from a conversation about measuring the speed of two very different objects. I realized that, unlike other measures that have their own units (length, mass, etc.), speed is measured using a ratio of distance and time. So I was wondering, does the size of the objects get factored into the measurement somehow? If speed is only ever measured using this distance/time approach (mph, for example), then wouldn’t the measure of speed become problematic since a large object is able to cover more distance than a small object?
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Lots of measures are a ratio. Density, for instance, is measured in mass over volume, e.g. grams per liter, or kg per m^(3). Current is measured in amperes, but an ampere is defined in terms of the number of elementary electric charges that move through a conductor every second (1 ampere equals 10^(19) coulombs per second, where a coulomb is the standard unit of charge). So current is measured as charge per second. The list goes on. Speed is by no means the only measure that is like this.
A large object is not able to cover more distance than a small object, I don’t know why you think that. Its footprint may be larger and so in that sense it covers a larger area, but you can move a large or a small object by the exact same distance, and how quickly you do that determines the speed.
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