I was writing a scientific paper and needed a single word to describe the shape of track.
A standard 400m track obviously has 2 turns and 2 straights.
It is not an ellipse nor is it accurate to say it is an oval.
Ovals have no straight sections.
The proper name appears to be "stadium".
A stadium is a geometric figure consisting of a rectangle with top and bottom lengths whose ends are capped off with semicircles of radius .
It would appear most stadiums are not stadium shaped then.
I feel like this exact same thread has come up several times before. Also, are the turns on tracks typically circular (as opposed to elliptical or something else)?
oops, my bad.
the topic has come up here before and stadium was the most accurate answer.
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1997894&page=0
i did like the suggestion of "sphenoellipsoid" but I think that is b.s.
one interesting thing is the dual radius tracks. I have run at the track at unc and we had to turn around the 200m dash because of wind and the start for lane 1 was alredy into the curve and the straight felt funny.