Last Saturday, the fastest sprinter in the world, Jamaican Asafa Powell, beat all-comers at the Jamaica International Invitational meeting in Kingston. Even so, he had wanted to go even faster and blamed the starter for making them wait too long, claiming that “It was the worst start I have ever got in my life so far.” (Read more…)
I’ve long wondered about how much faster sprinters can go. There’s been a regular decrease in time over the last century, although the curve is slowing as the time differences become smaller. Since the introduction of electronic timing, for example, each new record has been less than 0.05 seconds faster than the previous record. Maurice Green’s record stood for six years before Asafa beat it, by 0.02 seconds.
Source: Wikipedia
Statistically it has been calculated that at this ever slower rate, by 2100 the record will have only gone down to 9.52 seconds. Intuitively, however, I can’t help feeling that the progression will continue to the point of running the 100m in 0.00 seconds.
Following this thought, have you seen the ad for the new Gillette Fusion razor? It’s the one with six, yes six, blades: five on one side and one on the back for those awkward places that five blades cannot reach. I knew this was coming (as did the Onion, 18 months ago). It was as inevitable a progression as the sprint records. The Economist’s graph shows that, by current projections, we may have a razor with 14 blades within the next few years (Read more …).
Aïe!
