not a timing guy wrote:
asdfads wrote:He is fast. But 4.19 hand timed is like 4.4x autotimed. Fast. But not insane.It is a time that half dozen+ guys run every year.
Help me understand this.
I thought human reaction time was around 0.2 seconds. So if 4.19 was hand-timed, I would expect the actual time to be around 4.00 instead of 4.40, since the person holding the stopwatch would have to react to seeing him cross the line later than it happened. What am I missing?
Because you anticipate the runner crossing the line. The faster the runner, the more you anticipate.
We used to do all sorts of things to combat this: close one eye so you couldn't see him coming, say "lalalalalalalalala" so you couldn't hear them approaching... and you CAN get really close, closer than the .25+ difference that some posters have suggested... but electronic timing will always be more accurate.