Geometry 101: what shape is a track?

A stretched circle.

I don't think so. If you do a Google image search for "stretched circle," all you get is ovals...

Rectangle with round edges.

Hexagon stretched out and missing points.

ellipse

oval

A track is pill-shaped.

No, no, and no.

Great-- LetsRun-- where everyone knows how Alan Webb could train and race better but no one knows the shape of a track...

This one they were building at the time of the pic (it's complete now):

http://tinyurl.com/25lxdy

or some other one?

It's neither an ellipse nor an oval; it's a rounded rectangle.

Ellipses have two focal points. Oval is a generic term meaning "egg-like" (ovum).

Apply your google test to "pill shaped" and you'll find that, of the images that are of basic geometric shapes, they all look like a track. I don't see how you can reject this answer.

malmo wrote:

It's neither an ellipse nor an oval; it's a rounded rectangle.

Ding, ding, ding-- we have a winner!!!

Thanks...

It's called a sphenoellipsoid

Kele wrote:

Apply your google test to "pill shaped" and you'll find that, of the images that are of basic geometric shapes, they all look like a track. I don't see how you can reject this answer.

Because it depends on the particular pill. Viagra-shaped tracks would not look the same as aspirin-shaped tracks.

I will admit that it is a worthy second place...

malmo wrote:

It's neither an ellipse nor an oval; it's a rounded rectangle.

Ellipses have two focal points. Oval is a generic term meaning "egg-like" (ovum).

Not quite

Can you believe this sh*t? It's called a "stadium".

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Stadium.html

close but no cigar wrote:

Not quite

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RoundedRectangle.html

Wow-- I stand corrected-- it looks like a track is "stadium"-shaped...

close but no cigar wrote:

Not quite

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RoundedRectangle.html

Quite

(geometry)

close but no cigar wrote:

Not quite

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RoundedRectangle.html

Actually, it IS a rounded rectangle... IF it is a single radius track. (It just looks much more stupid than the diagram on that page)

Problem is, by definition alone, 99% of tracks in America are coordinated blobs, nothing more. Most of them are stretched over football fields with multiple radius to make up for this stretch.

So, if you're on your average track, nothing adequately or accurately describes it.

Many names wrote:

Quite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oval_

(geometry)

beat me to it.

But, according to the site with the rounded rectangle, it would also be described as a "stadium".