Related papers: The force, power and energy of the 100 meter sprin…
Many university texts on Mechanics deal with the problem of the effect of the air drag force, using as example the slowing down of a parachute. Hardly no one discuss what happens when the drag force is proportional to both $u$ and $u^2$. In…
Since that very memorable day at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, a big question on every sports commentator's mind has been "What would the 100 meter dash world record have been, had Usain Bolt not celebrated at the end of his race?" Glen Mills,…
A quasi-physical model (having both physical and mathematical roots) of sprint performances is presented, accounting for the influence of drag modification via wind and altitude variations. The race time corrections for both men and women…
World records in athletics provide a measure of physical as well as physiological human performance. Here we analyse running records and show that the mean speed as a function of race time can be described by two scaling laws that have a…
We employ the novel theory of heterogeneous extreme value statistics to accurately estimate the ultimate world records for the 100-m running race, for men and for women. For this aim we collected data from 1991 through 2023 from thousands…
In a previous article (physics/9705004), the best 100m performances in track and field were determined by accounting for wind effects and atmospheric drag. In this report, I seek to ascertain what was the "fastest" 100m final through a…
The mathematical model of J. Keller for predicting World Record race times, based on a simple differential equation of motion, predicted quite well the records of the day. One of its shortcoming is that it neglects to account for a…
The aim of this paper is to bring a mathematical justification to the optimal way of organizing one's effort when running. It is well known from physiologists that all running exercises of duration less than 3mn are run with a strong…
It is well known that ``equivalent'' sprint race times run with different accompanying wind speeds or at different altitudes are anything but equivalent races. The drag force acting on a sprinter is a function of air density and the…
The Olympic 500 meter sprint competition is the `Formula One event' of speed skating, and is watched by millions of television viewers. A draw decides who should start in inner lane and who in outer lane. Many skaters dread the last inner…
Models for human running performances of various complexities and underlying principles have been proposed, often combining data from world record performances and bio-energetic facts of human physiology. Here we present a novel, minimal…
In order to describe the velocity and the anaerobic energy of two runners competing against each other for middle-distance races, we present a mathematical model relying on an optimal control problem for a system of ordinary differential…
In the wake of numerous injuries and Donovan Bailey's media-stamped "sub-par" 100m victory of 10.03s at the 1997 Canadian Track and Field Championships, a medal hope at the 1997 World Championships seems grim for the Olympic Champion and…
Inspired by the Games held in ancient Greece, modern Olympics represent the world's largest pageant of athletic skill and competitive spirit. Performances of athletes at the Olympic Games mirror, since 1896, human potentialities in sports,…
A quick and fun investigation into the effects of correcting for wind assistance/resistance and drag on 100m sprint performances. Considered are World 100m rankings, as well as Canadian rankings
A numerical model of 100 m and 200 m world class sprinting performances is modified using standard hydrodynamic principles to include effects of air temperature, pressure, and humidity levels on aerodynamic drag. The magnitude of the…
This paper applies existing and new approaches to study trends in the performance of elite athletes over time. We study both track and field scores of men and women athletes on a yearly basis from 2001 to 2019, revealing several trends and…
That the speed of light is always c=300,000km/s relative to any observer in nonaccelerating motion is one of the foundational concepts of physics. Experimentally this was supposed to have been first revealed by the 1887 Michelson-Morley…
At the 2005 world championships there was considerable discussion and a formal protest in the long distance race arising from a perceived advantage obtained by some athletes running together. It is shown that a statistical model presented…
We present a new way of estimation of the role of chance in achieving success, by comparing the empirical data from 100-meter dash competitions (one of the sports disciplines with the most stringent controls of external randomness), with…