This Is Why

There Are So
Many Ties In
Swimming

For each paragraph write

one sentence that
summarizes the
Olympics 2016, three legends of swimming Michael
paragraph or a question it
poses. Phelps, Chad Le Clos, and László Cseh turned in

don't identical times to share silver in the 100m butterfly.

why Last night, Simone Manuel tied for gold with

they make Canadian Penny Oleksiak in the 100m freestyle.

the swim Modern timing systems are capable of measuring

times more down to the millionth of a second o h doe n

to FINA, the world swimming governing body, increase
precise
prevetites its timing precision by adding thousandths-of-
seconds?

A i rn o , FINA ed o. In 1972, S eden

Why Gunnar Larsson beat American Tim McKee in the

400m individual medley by 0.002 seconds. That finish
was it led the governing body to eliminate timing by a
removed significant digit. But why?

In a 50 me er Ol mpic pool, a he c rren men

world record 50m pace, a thousandth-of-a-second
could constitutes 2.39 millimeters of travel. FINA pool
length not dimension regulations allow a tolerance of 3
maybbt
e Jame
centimeters in each lane, more than ten times that
 amount.

Could you time swimmers to a thousandth-of-a-

econd? S re, b o co ldn g aran ee he
inning immer didn ha e a ho and h-of-a-

impossible second-shorter course to swim. (Attempting to

to
tell construct a concrete pool to any tighter a tolerance
is nearly impossible; the effective length of a pool
may
sizes vary can change depending on the ambient temperature,
the water temperature, and even whether or not
there are people in the pool itself.)

other precisely Sports that subject athletes to an identical course

sports bobsled, for example can use thousandths because
timed
theexact same hi q e ion doe n ma er. Speed ka ing e
use swimming thousandths, though given how start commands are
course
does not issued in that sport and the incredibly slow speed of
sound, ma be he ho ldn .

Summarize the article in one paragraph:

In order to prevent ties in the olympic swimming event, at

first it seems like a good idea to make the stopwatch more
precise. However, the length of the pool could differ for
each person microscopically, but just enough to give them
an unfair win. Some other events do not have this issue
because they don’t all compete at the exact same time.

Explain the role of error and precision in measuring times at the Olympics:

The precision in measuring times at the Olympics

would be finding a more precise time. The role of
error is the length of the pool differing ever so
slightly.
 Accuracy & Precision Worksheet

Accuracy: refers to how close a measurement is to a true, accepted or target value.

Precision: Refers to the reproducibility of a series of measurements

1. The following measurements were made to determine the density of a material whose
value was, according to the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 1.24 g/mL
Trial #1 1.20 g/mL
Trial #2 1.22 g/mL
Trial #3 1.22 g/mL

a. make a general comment on the accuracy of these results

they are relatively accurate

b. make a general comment on the precision of these results

the results are fairly precise

c. what may have caused these results?

not sure
2. The following measurements were made to determine the density of a material whose
value was, according to the handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 1.15 g/mL
Trial #1 0.95 g/mL
Trial #2 1.16 g/mL
Trial #3 1.26 g/mL
a. make a general comment on the accuracy of these results

trial 2 Was mostly accurate

b. make a general comment on the precision of these results

not precise
c. what may have caused these results?

not knowing what

density
2. The following measurements were made to determine the density of a material whose
value was, according to the handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 3.75 g/mL
Trial #1 4.75 g/mL
Trial #2 4.76 g/mL
Trial #3 4.74 g/mL
a. make a general comment on the accuracy of these results

not accurate
b. make a general comment on the precision of these results

very precise
 c. what may have caused these results?

Place 4 dots on each target with the appropriate level of accuracy and precision.

On Your Own!
a. Create one image representing accuracy but not precision
b. Create a second image representing precision but not accuracy
c. Create a third image representing accuracy and precision.
Cannot use a target or bulls-eye!!

DDD