Olympic Sprinters Nearest Starting Gun Get Advantage

RE: Olympic Sprinters Nearest Starting Gun Get Advantage

knelson — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 12:13:48 GMT

Good thing they have a horn at each block, too. The speed of sound in air at STP is 343 m/s. An Olympic pool is 25 m wide, so the swimmer in the far lane would be approximately 25 meters from the starter. If they used a gun start it would take 0.07 seconds for the sound to reach his block. It probably takes under 0.01 for the sound to reach the closest swimmer. That 0.06 second difference could easily be the deciding factor! Considering this it's strange they still use a gun in track where the entire race is over in less than 10 seconds for the 100 meter.

RE: Olympic Sprinters Nearest Starting Gun Get Advantage

Former Member — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:35:55 GMT

I think that track must use some sound source for each lane as well, or they would have attributed the difference in reaction time to the delay rather than the loudness. What I think they're saying is that even though they all hear a sound at the same time, the ones in lane 1 hear a louder sound, and this produces a faster reaction. It sounds like they should get rid of the single sound source, and just have the sound source at each lane, like in swimming.

RE: Olympic Sprinters Nearest Starting Gun Get Advantage

smontanaro — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:18:45 GMT

Yeah, I thought the starting blocks at big meets all had speakers. Skip

RE: Olympic Sprinters Nearest Starting Gun Get Advantage

Former Member — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:02:17 GMT

Swimming no longer uses a starting gun but an electronic beep issued from speakers under each starting block.