"With the relatively big chunks we’ve seen Bolt take out of world records, we are still a long way from understanding the limits of his, and others’, sprinting speeds." —John Barrow
The study has just been published in Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association. In it Professor Barrow illustrates how, based on concrete mathematical evidence, Bolt could cut his world record from 9.58 seconds to 9.44.
It is part of the Millennium Maths Project’s Maths and Sport programme which highlights the hidden maths behind the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Usain Bolt holds the current 100m world record, at 9.58s, and has been described as the best sprinter there has ever been, dramatically reducing his running times since he first won the world record in 2008. Previous scientific studies have been carried out aiming to predict his maximum speed, yet have failed to take all the relevant factors into account, and Bolt has already surpassed the speeds they predicted.
The Significance study highlights the three key factors instrumental in improving Bolt’s performance, which combined produce an improvement of 0.14s.
Read the full story
Image: Usain Bolt Credit: Pirano Bob R from Flickr.
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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