Submitted by The_Critical_Cynic t3_yfezcn in todayilearned
Reply to comment by JuzoItami in TIL Devon Allen, track & field athlete/Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver, was disqualified in the World Athletic Championships for a controversial false start. The starting blocks measured his reaction time from the time the gun went off at 0.099, which is 0.001 seconds faster than legally allowed. by The_Critical_Cynic
Considering drag racers often have reaction times down into the .05 second range and below, I'd say the number is arbitrary AF.
I think it’s slightly different in the sense that drag racers can estimate the start of the race as its constant. But for track and field the official firing the starter pistol is never constant and therefore can’t be predicted
It’s also a matter of sound, which radiates outward from its source at variable speed depending on different factors. This seems like something that can’t be reliably measured to that degree of precision. Feels like the kind of problem engineers and bureaucrats invent to justify their jobs.
Is it standardized where the official with the starter pistol stands?
There is a theory I like but wouldn’t call reliably proven that says humans and animals often subconsciously taken in information and even subconsciously analyze it to come to conclusions they aren’t can’t explain the reasoning for. In context this is more about short term things, not abstract ideas. It is relevant in that if the theory is true it would mean some of the runners could be taking in information like the official holding the starting pistol a certain way and even the movement of their finger and be reacting to that making it seem like their reaction to the shot is very short. Though some put forward this theory could even include information you couldn’t even learn to look for, like a tiny reflection a hundred feet away that shows the ref (behind the runner) flexing their finger to pull the trigger.
I like the theory but it is probably BS.
It's BS because each lane has its own speaker. So there's no time difference in hearing the signal.
The reaction time is also now at the point where distance from the starter's pistol^1 is becoming a factor
^1 technically from the collapsing waveform of the sound envelope. A starter's pistol 'Bang' does not radiate from the gun evenly in a circle, rather in a 3D teardrop shape
Depending upon the angle the starter fires it, it is not impossible that the moving sound wave could hit the eardrum of the second closest runner before the closest
Eighth lane is still screwed though
At championship levels there are speakers behind each set of blocks and the signal is electronic.
TIL
Thank you
IIRC they randomize the signals at the start of the drag races and no one actually knows when exactly it will flash from yellow to green.
Edit. Wrong. No ones knows the flash to triple amber but the move from that to green is .4
Edit 2. Just to be clear. Im saying I in fact did not recall correctly
It’s always a set time between amber and green, 0.4s for pros. That’s how perfect reaction times are possible - they know when green is coming.
TIL... Depending on the type of racing, all three amber lights will flash simultaneously, followed four-tenths of a second later by the green light (a Pro Tree), or the three bulbs will flash consecutively five-tenths of a second apart, followed five-tenths later by the green light (a Sportsman, or full, Tree)
Still though. Thats incredibly fast. Also I saw the op article originally posted and there is a lot to it. Light travels faster than sound. The brains processing time. The speed of electricity to activate muscles. Some people can truly process faster and some top tier athletes actually have to train themselves to wait the full .1 which is ridiculous.
In F1 the red lights go out randomly though.
Yeah the yellow countdown makes it out a lot easier to anticipate.
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