The 2018 Winter Olympic Games kicked off yesterday in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and those of us in the United States are getting ready to watch the opening ceremonies later this evening. For some people, it will be all about the speed skating, for others the downhill skiing, and for others still the ice hockey tournament. But regardless of which events are your favorites, they almost all involve some element of timing – and it turns out solving each event’s unique challenges is much harder than it looks.
A story by Alan Burdick, New Yorker staff writer and author of the book Why Time Flies: A Mostly Scientific Investigation, looks into the history of timekeeping at the Olympics, the involvement of Omega as the official timekeeper and a major researcher in new methods of timekeeping, and how the technology used for different events have their own idiosyncratic limitations.
Citing a 1984 swimming event in which two Americans tied down to the hundredth of a second, Burdick touches on a less obvious challenge: the point at which finer and more accurate timekeeping stops being helpful altogether. Once you start timing down to thousandths of a second, in most cases you’re beyond the margins of error in the courses and human reaction time. There are lots of other fascinating anecdotes and you’re guaranteed to learn the answer to at least one question you didn’t know to ask.
Visit the New Yorker and read the full story here.
Article from: Wristwatch News, Reviews, & Original Stories — HODINKEE, by Stephen Pulvirent
Cool Watches For Sale
Visit here for more on sports watches.
Find more on sports watches.
from Best Watches For Men http://ift.tt/2smTevM