![]() ![]() ![]() Together the dots and the line segments between them form a polygonal curve. I’ve connected the dots with straight lines as a guide to the eye, but keep in mind that only the dots are real data. The following graph shows the elapsed times at which Bolt crossed 10 meters, 20 meters, 30 meters, and so on, up to the 9.69 seconds it took him to cross the finish line at the 100-meter mark. Human beings have evolved to spot patterns, so instead of poring over numbers like we’ve just been doing, it’s usually more informative to visualize them. In the final 10 meters, when he eased up and broke form, he decelerated to an average speed of 11.1 meters per second (24.8 miles per hour). He blazed through those 10-meter sections in 0.82 second each, for an average speed of 12.2 meters per second (27.3 miles per hour). His fastest splits occurred at 50 to 60 meters, 60 to 70 meters and 70 to 80 meters. He covered the first 10 meters in 1.83 seconds, corresponding to an average speed of 5.46 meters per second (12.2 miles per hour) there. More detailed information is available from his split times recorded every 10 meters down the track. He went slower than that at the beginning and end and faster than that in the middle. But that was his average speed over the whole race. In more familiar units, that’s about 37 kilometers per hour, or 23 miles per hour. How fast did he run? Well, 100 meters in 9.69 seconds translates to $latex \frac =10.32$ meters per second. Even with his celebration (and an untied shoelace) he set a new world record of 9.69 seconds. Some commentators saw this as bragging, others as gleeful celebration, but in any case, Bolt clearly didn’t feel the need to run hard at the end, which led to speculation about just how fast he could have run. When he realized how far ahead he was, he slowed down visibly, dropped his arms to his sides, and slapped his chest as he cruised across the finish line. ![]() Then, still accelerating like a bullet train, he put daylight between himself and the rest of the field.Īt 80 meters, he glanced to his right to see where his main competitors were. Gaining speed, by 30 meters he moved up to the middle of the pack. His slower reaction time left him seventh out of eight near the start. Set,” and then fired the starting pistol.īolt shot out of the blocks, but not quite as explosively as the other Olympians. The sprinters placed their feet in the blocks and crouched into position. On that night in Beijing, after all the athletes had been introduced and finished mugging for the TV cameras, the stadium got quiet. He was goofy and mischievous and had a fondness for practical jokes. As a teenager he kept improving as a runner, but he never took the sport or himself too seriously. As a boy he had focused on soccer and cricket until his cricket coach noticed his speed and suggested that he try out for track. He was gangly, 6 feet, 5 inches tall, with a long, loping stride. Known more as a 200-meter man, he’d begged his coach for years to let him try running the shorter race, and over the past year he’d become very good at it. ![]() One of them, a 21-year-old Jamaican sprinter named Usain Bolt, was a relative newcomer to this event. At 10:30, the eight fastest men in the world lined up for the finals of the 100-meter dash. The evening of August 16, 2008, was windless in Beijing. To see why, let me tell you a story about the fastest sprinter on the planet. “Art,” said Pablo Picasso, “is a lie that makes us realize truth.” The same could be said for calculus as a model of nature. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |