This is something I have been thinking about since the Olympics... at what point will it not be possible for human beings to swim or run any faster. There has to be a point where the human body just can't go any faster, no matter how much you train, what kind of things you put into your body (legal or not), etc.
I mean it isn't possible to swim a 400 IM, for example, in 2 seconds (at least I don't think it ever will be) so where does it end? And when will that happen?
One of the points that is stressed in introductory lab courses, is that you report a meaningful number of significant digits, compared to the precision of the measurement. If you are traveling from coast to coast by car, you mention the distance in miles, you don't bother to report an odd number of inches.
With hand timing, the human reaction time is about a tenth of a second. (I knew Psych 101 would come in handy some day...). Even though your hand watch has more precision, it makes no sense to go to greater precision than 0.1, based on the human element.
With video and electronic timing, the precision is better than 0.1 seconds. Knelson worked out that 0.01 seconds is a little less than an inch, which is a noticable separation with slow motion video.
I'd argue that 0.001 seconds separation would not be detectable, even with slow motion video.
One of the points that is stressed in introductory lab courses, is that you report a meaningful number of significant digits, compared to the precision of the measurement. If you are traveling from coast to coast by car, you mention the distance in miles, you don't bother to report an odd number of inches.
With hand timing, the human reaction time is about a tenth of a second. (I knew Psych 101 would come in handy some day...). Even though your hand watch has more precision, it makes no sense to go to greater precision than 0.1, based on the human element.
With video and electronic timing, the precision is better than 0.1 seconds. Knelson worked out that 0.01 seconds is a little less than an inch, which is a noticable separation with slow motion video.
I'd argue that 0.001 seconds separation would not be detectable, even with slow motion video.
