track

[Guest]

what is the differance between lane one and lane 8 on a track when they finish one full revolution if they start the at the same spot.

[Guest]

It depends on the width of the lanes.

[Guest]

There's a chart in T&FN's "Big Green Book" which gives a good rule of thumb you can use. Every foot out from the curb you run adds an extra 6.25ft (1.90 metres) per lap.

Let's see if I can still do elemental math: figure a normal modern track has 4-foot lanes, so if you're in lane 8 you're 28ft from the curb. 6.25x28=175ft (53 metres) more per lap.

So to run a mile in lane 8 all the way, I make it that you need to run a little more than 3.5 laps.

[Pythagoras]

Euclid wrote:
>Let's see if I can still do elemental math: figure a normal modern track has 4-foot lanes,<

Well, a standard international track certainly has four foot lanes, but go out to your local high schoo, college, or community track and measure the lanes. Betcha they're not 4 feet.


>so if you're in lane 8 you're 28ft from the curb.
6.25x28=175ft (53 metres) more per lap.<

Not quite. Lane one is measured 30cm (about 12 in.) from the curb while the other lanes are measured 20cm (8 in,) from the lane line. Thus, lane 8 is 27'8" further out than lane 1. The difference in terms of the circumference is 4"x6,25 or 25", so over a mile, that would be more than an 8 foot mismeasurement if you used 28' instead of 27'8".

If you really want to be precise, the whole exercise should be in meters, starging with the lane width (which is 1.22 on a standard international track), and getting 2 times pi right too (it's not 6.25, it's more than 6.28).


>So to run a mile in lane 8 all the way, I make it that you need to run a little more than 3.5 laps.<

Depends on what you call a "little more." 3.5 laps is 1400m. Add your 53m and you're still more than 110m short of a mile.

Am I being too picky? Nah, Euclid is supposed to be precise about such things.

[JRM]

The radius of curvature for lane 1 of an IAAF "standard" track is 36.5m. Each lane is 1.25m in width, with a 5cm line separating them. So, the radius of lane 8 is about 36.5+7*(1.30) = 45.6m. This gives two turns of 286.5m. The straights are each 84.4m long, so the grand total distance in lane 8 is 268.5+168.8 = 437.3m. As the other poster said, a mile (1609m) in lane 8 would be slightly under 3.7 laps (or to about the 270m mark on the last lap).

[Guest]

I thought this was a trackandfield board, not a mathematics board. Shouldn't you guys be off measuring Suzy Powell's discus throws or something?

[lagsun]

Try this Web site to calculate laps and distance:

http://members.aol.com/RWNARF/atrack.htm

[Guest]

yeah, but what's the conversion from walking laps to running laps?