Units at the Olympics
syne...@hotmail.com
jump and pole vault on NBC and heights were all feet and inches. Is
that just NBC converting for US audiences or do they really use those
units? I suspect other events where the result is a distance
measurement is the same.
Klaus von der Heyde
> I haven't been watching much of the Olympics but I caught some high
> jump and pole vault on NBC and heights were all feet and inches. Is
> that just NBC converting for US audiences
At the Olympic Games, standard (i.e., metric) units are used.
Klaus
Klaus von der Heyde
> At the Olympic Games, standard (i.e., metric) units are used.
P.S. This is also the case if the games are in the USA, read
http://www.fansinsider.com/fi/olympics/oly2002day3.htm
for a report ;) from the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
Klaus
Don Aitken
All official measurements are metric. The BBC commentary never
mentions imperial (AmE="US customary") equivalents for distances, but
they give them an occasional mention in the field events, usually when
something that seems remarkable happens.
--
Don Aitken
Mail to the addresses given in the headers is no longer being
read. To mail me, substitute "clara.co.uk" for "freeuk.com".
Tasty Alien
it's only metric. In the US, the networks have to coddle the unwashed
masses. It really wouldn't be hard just to start reporting in metric,
since it's really all about numbers. We've made some progress from
reminding the viewers how many yards does a 100m dash equal, but we
still have a long way to go.
syne...@hotmail.com wrote in message news:<cd0f55df.04082...@posting.google.com>...
Joona I Palaste
> It's just NBC converting. If you catch what's shown on the displays,
> it's only metric. In the US, the networks have to coddle the unwashed
> masses. It really wouldn't be hard just to start reporting in metric,
> since it's really all about numbers. We've made some progress from
> reminding the viewers how many yards does a 100m dash equal, but we
> still have a long way to go.
Like I have said before, all this pandering to the ignorant masses is
only serving to keep the American public from ever learning the metric
system. If people only mention imperial units because they think the
public won't understand metric units yet, they're also making sure they
won't understand metric units in the future either. Knowledge of metric
isn't just going to magically pop into their heads.
--
/-- Joona Palaste (pal...@cc.helsinki.fi) ------------- Finland --------\
\-- http://www.helsinki.fi/~palaste --------------------- rules! --------/
"It's time, it's time, it's time to dump the slime!"
- Dr. Dante
Jukka K. Korpela
> At the Olympic Games, standard (i.e., metric) units are used.
But not the right way. They write e.g. "1500m" instead of "1500 m".
Someone might say that "1 500 m" would be clearer, and the optimal
notation, by several recommendations, would actually be "1,5 km".
--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
Jukka K. Korpela
> 1500 m and 1,5 km are not the same length
They are exactly the same, by definition.
> : precision varies.
If you draw conclusions about precision, you draw them at your own risk.
> In first
> case it is precise up to 1 m, in second one up to 100 m.
Nope. By the way, I'm pretty sure that the rules would not accept an
error of, say, 0.4 m - especially since such errors would have essential
effect on world records. (If anything in the open interval
(1499.5, 1500.5) would be acceptable, as you seem to have deduced,
then the times from different sports events would surely not be
comparable enough.)
> Maybe 1,50 km would better express this length.
Well, by your assumptions, it would be yet another length, wouldn't it?
But it isn't; the assumptions are wrong.
--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
Bob
wrote:
>"Jukka K. Korpela" <jkor...@cs.tut.fi> wrote :
>
>> Klaus von der Heyde <uzs...@uni-bonn.de> wrote:
>>
>>> At the Olympic Games, standard (i.e., metric) units are used.
>>
>> But not the right way. They write e.g. "1500m" instead of "1500 m".
>> Someone might say that "1 500 m" would be clearer, and the optimal
>> notation, by several recommendations, would actually be "1,5 km".
>
>1500 m and 1,5 km are not the same length : precision varies. In first
>case it is precise up to 1 m, in second one up to 100 m.
>
>Maybe 1,50 km would better express this length.
I really doubt that anyone intended the designation 1500 m to imply
the precision of the race length; it is simply a name.
But it does raise an interesting question...to what precision is the
race length measured? I suspect it is as exact as they can make it,
which probably means to a cm or so. Anyone?
bob
Michael G. Koerner
Yep, it's the Luddites at NBC converting the 'official' metric for USA
consumption. It's been driving me nuts.
Among the things 'converted' include jumping lengths/heights, throwing
lengths, weight classes, weightlifting weights (damn, I want those even
2.5 kg increments!), distances covered in the
marathons/triatlons/bicycle road races, positions on the football
pitches, etc. Totally annoying! Grrrrrrr....
--
___________________________________________ ____ _______________
Regards, | |\ ____
| | | | |\
Michael G. Koerner May they | | | | | | rise again!
Appleton, Wisconsin USA | | | | | |
___________________________________________ | | | | | | _______________
Harri Haanpaa
> Yep, it's the Luddites at NBC converting the 'official' metric for USA
> consumption. It's been driving me nuts.
>
> Among the things 'converted' include jumping lengths/heights, throwing
> lengths, weight classes, weightlifting weights (damn, I want those even
> 2.5 kg increments!)
So how accurately do they convert them? 440.92952 lbs?
Harri
Andreas Prilop
> But not the right way. They write e.g. "1500m" instead of "1500 m".
> Someone might say that "1 500 m" would be clearer,
You can't expect that they get such subtleties right when
they can't even manage to use the international country signs,
for example, DEU instead of GER.
Will these sports bureaucrats ever recognize ISO 3166?
Markus Kuhn
>You can't expect that they get such subtleties right when
>they can't even manage to use the international country signs,
>for example, DEU instead of GER.
>
>Will these sports bureaucrats ever recognize ISO 3166?
To be fair, the IOC codes are quite a bit older than ISO 3166.
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/codes/country.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IOC_country_codes
http://www.uefa.com/uefa/news/Kind=1/newsId=84623.html
Markus
--
Markus Kuhn, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ || CB3 0FD, Great Britain
Andreas Prilop
>> for example, DEU instead of GER.
>> Will these sports bureaucrats ever recognize ISO 3166?
>
> To be fair, the IOC codes are quite a bit older than ISO 3166.
I don't understand your argument.
Most character sets/encodings are quite a bit older than Unicode.
Should they all be retained?
Most British/American units are quite a bit older than SI.
Should they all be retained?
Pat Norton
>to what precision is the race length measured?
Road races must be accurate to the nearest 0.1% (i.e. 42 m for the
marathon). I do not know about fixed facilities.
* IAAF Competition Rules
* The measurement of road race courses
* IAAF Track and Field Facilities Manual
http://www.iaaf.org
Andreas Prilop
>> for example, DEU instead of GER.
>> Will these sports bureaucrats ever recognize ISO 3166?
>
> To be fair, the IOC codes are quite a bit older than ISO 3166.
I just realize that "DEU" is quite a bit older than "GER".
"GER" was introduced in 1990. Why "GER"? Why not "DEU"?
Do not answer
Because all the abbreviations are from the English names
for each country. Like my own country code is SWE instead
of the more natural SVE, Denmark has DEN instead of DAN
etc.
I think it is easier to use abbreviations based on ONE
language (as it is done today) instead of basing the
abbreviations for each country. What would the abbreviations
for China, or Saudi Arabia be in that case?
Asbjörn
--
To reach me by e-mail, please use _sheridan at babcon dot org_.
Philip Kendall
Don Aitken <don-a...@freeuk.com> wrote:
>
>>I haven't been watching much of the Olympics but I caught some high
>>jump and pole vault on NBC and heights were all feet and inches. Is
>>that just NBC converting for US audiences or do they really use those
>>units?
>
>mentions imperial (AmE="US customary") equivalents for distances,
The BBC Sport website does, though:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics_2004/athletics/3589138.stm
"A distraught Paula Radcliffe saw her dream of Olympic gold shattered
after pulling out of the women's marathon at the 23-mile mark in
Athens."
with other mentions of miles following. The marathon is the only
exception I can find; other distance events such as the cycling and the
triathlon are done in metric.
Cheers,
Phil
--
Philip Kendall <pa...@srcf.ucam.org>
http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~pak21/
Andreas Prilop
>> "GER" was introduced in 1990. Why "GER"? Why not "DEU"?
>
> Because all the abbreviations are from the English names
> for each country. Like my own country code is SWE instead
> of the more natural SVE, Denmark has DEN instead of DAN
> etc.
Basically, you suggest to abandon ISO 3166. Right?
Markus Kuhn
>Basically, you suggest to abandon ISO 3166. Right?
I wouldn't shed a tear if ISO 3166 alpha-3 were scraped.
I never understood, why ISO defined both a 2-letter and
a 3-letter alphabetic code. I don't know a single application
of ISO 3166 alpha-3 and I find it inconvenient that it
shares the same format as the well-established ISO currency
codes.
It would be nice if both the IOC and the UN vehicle identification
plaques adopted ISO 3166 alpha-2 codes, but I would never recommend
anyone to use the ISO 3166 alpha-3 codes.
Markus
Do not answer
I had to check it out, and I must say that I don't
understand it.
GERmany: DE DEU (DEUtchland, of course)
but
SWEden: SE SWE (Sverige)
SWItzerland: CH CHE (Schweiz (actually Schweizerische
Eidtgenossenschaft)
DeNmarK: DK DNK (ok, but why not DEN/DAN?)
Is Germany the only country that obviously have an
abbreviation in their own language?
Regards,
Erik Naggum
> SWItzerland: CH CHE (Schweiz (actually Schweizerische
> Eidtgenossenschaft)
Confoederatio Helvetica. www.about.ch, www.admin.ch, etc.
> Is Germany the only country that obviously have an abbreviation in
> their own language?
No. Another is ES, ESP for España. There are more, and many that just
happen to match both English and the native language country name.
--
Erik Naggum, Oslo, Norway @2004-245
Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder.
Act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.
Jim Riley
<har...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>So how accurately do they convert them? 440.92952 lbs?
On NBC's Olympic web page, the weight lifted is in kilograms, with the
weight class also indicated in pounds. In the news articles, the
weight lifted is given in kilograms, with a conversion to the nearest
quarter pound.
How accurately do Finnish announcers express distance measurements
that have been converted from English units?
Hurdles are 1.067 m high, 13.72 meters to the first from the start,
9.14 m between hurdles, and 14.02 from the last to the finish. Wind
gauges are placed at 1.22 m off the ground, and the width of lanes is
1.22 m.
--
Jim Riley
Harri Haanpaa
>
> How accurately do Finnish announcers express distance measurements
> that have been converted from English units?
>
> Hurdles are 1.067 m high, 13.72 meters to the first from the start,
> 9.14 m between hurdles, and 14.02 from the last to the finish. Wind
> gauges are placed at 1.22 m off the ground, and the width of lanes is
> 1.22 m.
The short answer is that they don't. At least not usually. I've
never heard an announcer mention any of those measurements, although
I don't watch so much sports. I would presume that if an announcer
would mention any of those, he would read the measurement aloud
from a reference in front of him, and in that case he might give
even the height of the hurdle to millimeter accuracy, if he would
want to be precise. Other than that I think centimeter accuracy
would sound natural. I think I might have heard a tennis announcer
mention that the height of the net is 91.4 centimeters.
Harri
Andreas Prilop
>> Basically, you suggest to abandon ISO 3166. Right?
>
> I had to check it out, and I must say that I don't
> understand it.
> GERmany: DE DEU (DEUtchland, of course)
> SWEden: SE SWE (Sverige)
There is no general rule. Some symbols are derived form the English
name (GR = Greece) and some are derived form the vernacular name
(ES = España) and some I don't understand (DZ).
While we are in country symbols:
Can anyone explain CDN?
--
Top-posting.
What's the most irritating thing on Usenet?
Bob
<nhtc...@rrzn-user.uni-hannover.de> wrote:
>On Wed, 1 Sep 2004, Do not answer wrote:
>
>>> Basically, you suggest to abandon ISO 3166. Right?
>>
>> I had to check it out, and I must say that I don't
>> understand it.
>> GERmany: DE DEU (DEUtchland, of course)
>> SWEden: SE SWE (Sverige)
>
>There is no general rule. Some symbols are derived form the English
>name (GR = Greece) and some are derived form the vernacular name
>(ES = España) and some I don't understand (DZ).
who is DZ?
A 2 letter code may allow enough codes, but it is very easy for it to
fall short of providing nice codes.
We have the same problem with the chemical elements. All [new]
codes/symbols are 2 letter. Fine, there are far fewer than 26^2
elements. But four of the elements start with Ca. So, cadmium and
californium end up with more obscure symbols.
bob
Your name
> Can anyone explain CDN?
g
Esa A E Peuha
> * Do not answer
> > SWItzerland: CH CHE (Schweiz (actually Schweizerische
> > Eidtgenossenschaft)
>
> Confoederatio Helvetica. www.about.ch, www.admin.ch, etc.
Which could be translated as "Confederation of Hell" :-)
--
Esa Peuha
student of mathematics at the University of Helsinki
http://www.helsinki.fi/~peuha/
Andreas Prilop
>> Can anyone explain CDN?
> CDN = Canada,
Yes, but what's the explanation for CDN? Was the country once known
as Cadana and did they just keep the license plates?
Andreas Prilop
>> There is no general rule. Some symbols are derived form the English
>> name (GR = Greece) and some are derived form the vernacular name
>> (ES = España) and some I don't understand (DZ).
>
> who is DZ?
<http://www.google.com/search?q=%22ISO+3166%22+DZ>
Brian Inglis
Prilop <nhtc...@rrzn-user.uni-hannover.de> wrote:
>On Fri, 3 Sep 2004, Your name wrote:
>
>>> Can anyone explain CDN?
>> CDN = Canada,
>
>Yes, but what's the explanation for CDN? Was the country once known
>as Cadana and did they just keep the license plates?
No, we recycle CD plates when we kick diplomatic drunk drivers out of
the country, eh!
--
Thanks. Take care, Brian Inglis Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Brian....@CSi.com (Brian[dot]Inglis{at}SystematicSW[dot]ab[dot]ca)
fake address use address above to reply
Chris Kaese
> I never understood, why ISO defined both a 2-letter and
> a 3-letter alphabetic code. I don't know a single application
> of ISO 3166 alpha-3 and I find it inconvenient that it
> shares the same format as the well-established ISO currency
> codes.
>
> It would be nice if both the IOC and the UN vehicle identification
> plaques adopted ISO 3166 alpha-2 codes, but I would never recommend
> anyone to use the ISO 3166 alpha-3 codes.
>
A good overview of country codes (ISO, IOC, IANA, UN vehicle) can be
found under: http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/codes/country.htm
It is astonishing that some countries have different codes, deoending
on the coding system (DEU/GER, GBR/.uk). I can't see any sense in this
mess, it just makes memorising country codes and recognising countries
more difficult. It also creates confusion about what the right country
code might be. Perhaps the IOC should adapt ISO codes?
I know this question has been asked before: Does anybody know the
history of CDN (CDN <> Canada)? I have been trying to find an answer
for a long time.
Regards,
Chris Kaese
Brian Inglis
cdk...@ntlworld.com (Chris Kaese) wrote:
Besides an abbreviation for Canadian and to distinguish the meaning of
the $ currency symbol, the only official use I could find is its
appearance attached to references to the geodetic datum CGD28-CDN
Canadian Geodetic Datum 1928.
I found one online reference to official "triptyque" country code
vehicle identifiers that say it's from Canadian DominioN:
http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/where/where.htm "Where's That Vehicle
Come From?" dates it from 1956, replacing CA used earlier.
It may have originated in the 1800s or early 1900s so you may have to
research paper sources if you require a definitive answer.
Andreas Prilop
> A good overview of country codes (ISO, IOC, IANA, UN vehicle) can be
> found under: http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/codes/country.htm
>
> I know this question has been asked before: Does anybody know the
> history of CDN (CDN <> Canada)? I have been trying to find an answer
> for a long time.
I could think of the following:
- The country's name in some aboriginal language is "Cadana".
- "CDN" is a French-style abbreviation like OTAN (= NATO) or SIDA (= AIDS).
- "CDN" was a typo and when someone noticed, millions of cars were
already equipped with this plate.
Do not answer
> Do not answer <spam...@bostream.nu> wrote :
>
>
>>Andreas Prilop wrote:
>>
>>
>>>On Tue, 31 Aug 2004, Do not answer wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>>"GER" was introduced in 1990. Why "GER"? Why not "DEU"?
>>>>
>>>>Because all the abbreviations are from the English names
>>>>for each country. Like my own country code is SWE instead
>>>>of the more natural SVE, Denmark has DEN instead of DAN
>>>>etc.
>>>
>>>Basically, you suggest to abandon ISO 3166. Right?
>>
>>I had to check it out, and I must say that I don't
>>understand it.
>>
>>GERmany: DE DEU (DEUtchland, of course)
>>
>>but
>>
>>SWEden: SE SWE (Sverige)
>>SWItzerland: CH CHE (Schweiz (actually Schweizerische
>> Eidtgenossenschaft)
>>DeNmarK: DK DNK (ok, but why not DEN/DAN?)
>>
>>Is Germany the only country that obviously have an
>>abbreviation in their own language?
>
>
> There is also France (FR-FRA), all english speaking countries.
And in French, that would be... ?
:-)
Stephen Gallagher
> > found under: http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/codes/country.htm
> >
> > I know this question has been asked before: Does anybody know the
> > history of CDN (CDN <> Canada)? I have been trying to find an answer
> > for a long time.
>
> I could think of the following:
>
> - The country's name in some aboriginal language is "Cadana".
The aboriginal name of Canada is acknowledges as "Kanata".
> - "CDN" is a French-style abbreviation like OTAN (= NATO) or SIDA (= AIDS).
Doubt it since, in French, the word for Canada is......... Canada.