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Published online 26 June 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.917

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Olympic starter's gun 'unfair'

Pistol may hand advantage to those closest to the starting official.

Katharine Sanderson

The Olympics may not be the bastion of pure sporting contest that people might think. Although the pistol used to start sprint events in the Games might make good theatre, it may mean that sprinters in lane 1, nearest the gun, get away from the blocks faster.

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  • From a science conjecture web page, written in 1998: The speed of sound is roughly 300 metres per second (actually 344m/s). If the runner in the outside lane is 6 metres further away from the starter's pistol than the runner in the inside lane then the sound of the pistol will reach that runner 6/300 = 0.02 of a second later. Therefore the inside lane runner has two-one-hundredths of a second advantage. Given that world-level races are won and lost in less than one-hundredth of a second it is important that this effect is taken into account... http://tinyurl.com/47jznl

    • 26 Jun, 2008
    • Posted by: Michael Paine