This article explains why certain distances for rides within the app may not match the total value for a period of time (week, month, year). The short answer is simple: rounding.
Equilab rounds the values of all distances shown in the app to the nearest tenth of a distance unit (kilometers or miles). This enables us to ensure that the distances can remain easily visible for all users, as there are minimum font size requirements (and showing a distance such as "8.3645 km" takes up a lot of space).
When these values are added, the rounding of the result may be slightly different than the total of the individual distances. Here is an example to illustrate this point:
- One ride on Tuesday is 2.55 miles -- which is rounded to 2.6 miles when displayed in the app
- Another ride on Friday is 4.55 miles -- which is rounded to 4.6 miles when displayed in the app
- The total for these two rides during the week will show as 7.1 miles (2.55+4.55) in the app
- This is different than the 7.2 miles you'd get if you added the rounded values of 2.6 and 4.6 miles
Important note: While Equilab rounds the distance either up or down to the nearest tenth of a kilometer or mile for standard rides, we exclusively round down for distances showing progress in Challenges. This helps users ensure that their progress to date is not overstated, which prevents them from coming up short of a Challenge goal due to rounding.
If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact us at support@equilab.zendesk.com. We're always here to help.