The Great Debate - Laps

This is swimming. Track doesn't matter in any way. If you are asked to count laps for someone swimming the 500 or longer, what do you count? You count lengths. That's the number you put on the lap counter signs you show the swimmer underwater.

No one has asked me to count laps. I've been asked to count lengths. If they meant laps, they would have asked me to count laps, but that would be stupid because I'd have to be where they started.

This is swimming. Track doesn't matter in any way. No, I think it does, because: If you are asked to count laps for someone swimming the 500 or longer, what do you count? You count lengths. That's the number you put on the lap counter signs you show the swimmer underwater. I think the lap counters are a carryover from track. In track you definitely are counting laps. They just retained the name for swimming even though they actually count lengths, not laps, in swimming.

LAP - What I allow only my wife to sit on (lest she beat the bejeesus out of me) Length - something requiring a unit of measure to describe.

I'll bet you anti-lap, pro-length people are lane splitters too.

The lap counters count by two, so they do not count down and back as 1 lap.

Lap--down and back. "Down" to the bottom of the pool and "back" to the surface. :agree:

Answer One would think that 2 lengths of the pool is a lap -- that is from start to the end of the pool and back (seems to make sense, right?), however, according to the rules of the Olympic games, a lap is one length of a pool. This is how competitive high school and college swimmers count laps, as well. The above is quoted from wiki ...

I rarely hear any real swimmer use the term, "lap," but my interpretation is down/back. The only time I hear, "lap," is maybe from someone in my office who doesn't swim will ask me, "How many laps did you swim?" We always discuss the distances in yards or meters. This morning my workout was about 3700 yards, and I don't really care how many laps that is.

What would you like the answer to be? You'll find ample evidence that 1 lap = 1 length of a pool 1 lap = 2 lengths of a pool I support the theory that 1 lap = 1 length My supporting evidence almost all competitive swimmers, coaches, judges I've met use lap and length interchangably My government issue Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines a lap as: "the act or instance of traversing a course (as a racing track or swimming pool): the distance covered". The course of a pool is 25y, 25m, 50m, etc, not out and back. dictionary.reference.com/.../laps'& defines a lap as: 2A One complete round circuit, especially of a race track 2B One complete length of a straight course, as of a swimming pool USA Swimming defines a lap as "One length of a course. Sometimes may also mean down and back (2 lengths of the course" (e.g. Gun lap is two lengths) Commercial LAP counters only have odd numbers and are used at opposite the start end of a pool, thus each lap is a length NJ High School swimming rules state that LAP counters, who use the above commercial LAP counters, may either count up or down (though you'll incure the wrath of the judges/colorado timers if you count down) I refuse to believe that the Olympic 50m Freestyle is a half-lap event It ticks off those who insist that a lap must start and ends at the same location (not according to my dictionary's) However, if you prefer 1 lap = 2 lengths, there's ample evidence to support that position too.