Related papers: Another Dash into the Record Books (wind: -2.1 m/s…
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…
The 100m world rankings of the 1997 outdoor track and field competition season are reviewed, subject to corrections for wind effects and atmospheric drag. The rankings and times are compared with those of 1996, and the improvements of each…
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,…
At the recent 1999 World Athletics Championships in Sevilla, Spain, Canada's Bruny Surin matched Donovan Bailey's National and former World Record 100 m mark of 9.84 s. The unofficial times for each, as read from the photo-finish, were…
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…
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 simple algebraic expression is presented to correct men's and women's 100 metre sprint times for ambient wind and altitude effects. The simplified formula is derived from a more complicated equation of motion used to model the athlete's…
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…
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…
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…
Recently, a simple model was derived to account for a sprinter's energy loss around a curve, based on previous sprint models for linear races. This paper offers a quick test of the model's precision by comparing split times from Donovan…
Using the model framework for curve running as described in physics/9704022, the possible outcome of the 150m "One to One" showdown between sprinters Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson are discussed (to be run 01 Jun 1997 at Skydome in…
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…
At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Usain Bolt broke the world record for the 100 m sprint. Just one year later, at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin he broke it again. A few months after Beijing, Eriksen et al.…
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…
Based on a mathematical simulation which reproduces accurate split and velocity profiles for the 100 and 200 metre sprints, the magnitudes of altitude and mixed wind/altitude-assisted performances as compared to their sea-level equivalents…
The Olympic sport of skeleton involves an athlete riding a small sled face first down a bobsled track at speeds up to 130 km/hr. In these races, the difference between gold and missing the medal stand altogether can be hundredths of a…
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…
Global return value estimates of significant wave height and 10-m neutral wind speed are estimated from very large aggregations of archived ECMWF ensemble forecasts at +240-h lead time from the period 2003-2012. The upper percentiles are…