“HOW FAST IS THAT GOING?” asks a fascinating question posed by Jeremy White, Joe Ward, Noah Throop, Emily Rhyme, and Bedel Saget in The New York Times, July 24, 2024.
The article is set up as an interactive quiz, so I suggest you play it first, then return here if you’d like to read tidbits gleaned from it. (No peeking below!)
All Bets Off With Firearms. Of course, there are Olympic events involving firearms, the bullets of which travel faster than any of these others. Understandably, they’re not included in this quiz.
Why Weapons in the Olympics? I felt shirty for a moment about firearms being included at all in the Olympics. But then I thought about the javelin event’s spear, archery’s arrow, even shot put’s projectile. Thankfully, we’ve never included some of the more horrific of humankind’s fighting with one another.
Heavy Things Tossed. Several sports are about as paleolithic as one can imagine: Wikipedia describes, “The shot put is a track and field event involving “putting” (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the shot—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival (1896), and women’s competition began in 1948.” Olympic records these days are 76 ft. 5 1/4 in. for men and 73 ft. 6 1/4 in. for women.
I hadn’t realized how heavy the shot is: 16 lb. for men—the maximum weight of a bowling ball; 8.8 lb. for women. Gad. And note, it has to be “put” from the shoulder, not “thrown” on an arc of the arm.
By the way, a shot is by far the slowest of Olympic objects: 26 mph.
The Discus Throw. By contrast, a discus is thrown. Wikipedia describes it as “an oblate spheroid weight,” 4.4 lb. for men, half that for women. Olympic records are 229 ft. 3 in. for men, 237 ft. 2 in. for women.
The discus reaches 46 mph at its maximum, putting it among the slower Olympic objects. (Volley ball; 44 mph and, surprisingly, a ping-pong ball’s 33 mph).
A Matter of Scale. Table tennis, especially played seriously, has always seemed particularly frenetic to me (and I’m terrible at even casual play). The ping-pong ball’s light mass limits its speed (by contrast, a tennis ball can reach 125 mph), but the table is only 9 ft. x 5 ft. (hence, the freneticism).
Another Curious Matter. As noted in The New York Times’ analyses, a badminton’s shuttlecock sets the record with an amazing 181 mph; other speedy objects are the archery arrow’s 129 mph and the aforementioned tennis ball’s 125 mph.
Racket Regs. The olympics.com website describes racket regulations set by the Badminton World Federation. Five elements are addressed: the handle, the shaft, the stringed area, the head surrounding this area, and the throat (optional, connecting the head to the shaft). There are specific dimensional limits for the racket and its elements, kinda like F.I.A. F1 regs but commensurately fewer.
How Come the Birdie’s Swiftness? The New York Times notes, “The birdie is about the fastest projectile you’ll see at these Olympics, and it’s also as light as a feather—literally. It’s made of 16 goose feathers and weighs less than two-tenths of an ounce (about five grams).” What’s more, it’s sleeker than a ping-pong ball; it reminds me of a space capsule in return trim, but with weight distribution for proper flight.
However, I suspect matters also may depend upon the techniques of speed measurement. Sources vary, but a “Badminton Smash GUINNESS WORLD RECORD” YouTube from 2023 describes a new racket: “The NANOFLARE 1000 Z stands out because of its enhanced repulsion performance on impact.”
The men’s record cited is Indian Satwiksairaj Rankireddy’s 565 km/h (351 mph); the women’s, Malaysian Tam Pearly’s 438 km/h (272 mph).
As shown in the YouTube, its shuttlecock velocities are measured with high-speed photography immediately after impact with the racket.
By contrast, it’s not clear to me from The New York Times’ analyses where, when, and how speeds were measured. For example (since none of the objects is self-propelled), maximum speed would seem to be immediately after the player’s action: the volley ball player smacks the ball. The putter releases the shot. The archer’s bow twang is completed. The ping-pong ball reacts to its impact with the paddle.
At any rare, I surely enjoyed The New York Times’ quiz format for the article. Gold for you, Jeremy, Joe, Noah, Emily, and Bedel! ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024