Published by Australian Academy of Science
KEY TEXT Measurement in sport – the long and the short of it This topic is sponsored by the National Standards Commission and the Australian Government's National Innovation Awareness Strategy.

Australians are famous – or infamous – for being sports-mad. We play it, we watch it, we love it. But have you ever wondered about the purpose of so much activity? The long and the short of it is...well, just that, the long and the short of it! When people play sport, they need some way of comparing performances: whether on a netball court or a sprint track, measures are needed to separate the winners from the losers.

How measurement is used in sport

Measurement is an essential element of all sports in two ways. First, measurements are taken to determine the outcome of an event, such as which runner was fastest or which pole-vaulter jumped highest. Second, measurements are used to communicate the agreed rules and regulations of a particular sport. It would be unfair, for example, to claim a world record in the 50 metres freestyle event if the swimming pool is a few centimetres short of the required length (Box 1: Olympic track and pool facilities).

Units of measurement

The starting point for any measurement is the unit of measurement. For it to be useful, everyone must agree on which unit to use and what it means.

In contrast to the precision of today, units of measurement in the past were often quite imprecise. For example, one cubit was the distance from a person's fingertip to their elbow. An acre was originally the area of land that a team of two oxen could plough in one day. These units were not always comparable: people vary in size, and the work-rate of oxen depends on a whole range of factors, including what they ate for breakfast.

To improve accuracy of measurement, people soon realised that units must be based on agreed standards. These days, most units of measurement used in Australia are those of the International System of Units. In this system, seven of the units have been selected to be base units. Larger or smaller multiples are obtained by combining the unit with an appropriate prefix, for example kilo (which means a thousand) is combined with metre to form kilometre (which means a thousand metres). The base units most often encountered in sport are the metre, the second and the kilogram. Some units are derived from these base units by combining two or more of them (eg, metre per second for speed or velocity). In certain cases these derived units are given a special name, such as newton for the units of force. Of course, some sports have quite arbitrary units of measurement. The unit in soccer, for example, is a goal – soccer players the world over agree that the team scoring the most goals wins the game.

Measuring devices

With the pressures of international competition comes a demand for increasingly accurate and fail-safe measuring devices. Science and technology play an important role in developing more sophisticated measuring devices for use in major sporting events. For example, to decide who is the fastest human on Earth, we need to measure distance and time accurately.

Timing devices used in running events have undergone enormous changes. In the 1912 Olympic Games, hand-operated mechanical stopwatches were used with an accuracy of 0.2 of a second. By 1932, the accuracy of stopwatches had improved to 0.1 of a second (Box 2: Perfect timing: Timing devices and reaction time).

Measuring for improved performance

Science can explain the way we use the forces of nature in various sports. Friction, air resistance and gravity are all forces that are important in sport. Understanding and measuring these forces can help athletes improve their technique and also lead to improvements in the design of equipment (Box 3: Physics in sport: Forces on an athlete).

In addition, manufacturers of sporting equipment, clothing and playing surfaces constantly rely on measurements to improve their products in the quest for the next world record, or just to provide safe and reliable facilities and equipment. For example, rackets and balls have undergone many changes in design, materials and construction methods. Such innovations have increased the speed of ball games such as tennis and squash (Box 4: Rackets and balls).

Getting your measure

Anywhere you look in sport, people are measuring – the distance of a javelin-throw, the time of a race, the number of goals, the dimensions of a pool. Sometimes the difference between winning and losing is just a hundredth of a second – a difference that can only be determined by a computerised timing device. Maybe we are too fanatical about it – but, then again, there are few things more frustrating than an inconclusive result.

Boxes

1. Olympic track and pool facilities

2. Perfect timing: Timing devices and reaction time

3. Physics in sport: Forces on an athlete

4. Rackets and balls

CREDITS

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