ole missian wrote:
And I saw a second starter in the grassy knoll.[/quote]
Pod as far as I'm concerned.[/quote]
seconded.
ole missian wrote:
And I saw a second starter in the grassy knoll.[/quote]
Pod as far as I'm concerned.[/quote]
seconded.
It's already been pointed out that the other runners were not "blocking" wind that would otherwise have been pushing Gay because Gay and the other runners were travelling faster than the wind. It has also been pointed out that the runners are in lanes anyway.
Here's another point. Assuming that the tailwind had been blocing faster than the runners were running, the OP's two arguments (1. wind was diverted to the wind guage and away from the track, and 2. other runners blocked Gay's tailwind) would be in contradiction.
If the other runners were blocking the wind, then they were essentially doing the same thing that the building behind the track was doing. They weren't stopping the wind outright, they were diverting it to the side. Which means that the runners to Gay's left and the runners to Gay's right were actually funneling wind into Gay's lane, thereby increasing his wind advantage.
Not that I care. Gay's awesome. Great run. Can't wait to see him in Beijing.
Since Tyson and his competitors were running at about 10m/sec and the tail wind averaged 4.1m/sec, they were all running into the air (an effective headwind) at a speed of around 6m/s. Therefore anyone following Tyson couldn't possibly have reduced or aided the wind advantage to Tyson.
But assuming the tail wind was a constant 4.1m/s and there were no buildings around, does anyone have information that would allow us to estimate what Tyson's 9.68 time might have been had the wind slowed to 1.9m/s, just under the allowable 2.0m/s limit?
Put it another way, if the wind had slowed to just under the permissible limit, would Tyson have broken the recognized world record of 9.72? Did the extra wind of 2.2m/s help reduce his time by .04 seconds or more?
Running at 10m/s, .04 seconds represents a distance of .4m or 15.8 inches. It seems reasonable that having an excess wind at your back of 2.2m/s (or 7.2 feet/sec) could cause a 100m runner to cross the finish line .04 or more seconds sooner.
Since this is the most retarded thread I've read in a long time, I'll add to it.
How do you account for the audience inhaling and exhaling? Does this affect the guy in lane 8 more than the guy in lane 1. Now does the collective inhale negate the competitive advantage of the collective exhale.
Also, if there is a tailwind, wouldn't Gay actually benefit more from it than the athletes behind him? Considering Gay is in the center of the track and ahead of all the other athletes, there would be a cone effect actually forming a funnel to push Gay along even further actually diminishing his accomplishment.