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On the spike
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THE LAST WORD Touchy feely In Olympic swimming events, the winner is the first person to touch a pressure-sensitive wall pad at the end of the pool. How does this pad know that a person has touched it rather than just registering the pressure of splashing water? If a swimmer just brushed it, would it fail to register their finish?
■ At the end of each lane there is a touch pad 90 centimetres high, 240 cm wide and 1 cm thick. Touching the pad stops the clock. Omega, the manufacturer of the touch pads used during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, claimed that the pads react to the slightest touch from a swimmer’s hand, but not to the splashing of water. However, after the argument around Michael Phelps’s victory over Milorad Cavic in the 100 metres butterfly final at the games, later verified by digital images, it was revealed that a
“The manufacturer claims the pads react to the slightest touch but not to the splashing of water” pressure of approximately 3 kilograms per square centimetre must be applied to the pad to activate it and stop the clock. Therefore, it can be said that the victor is the person who touches the pad with enough pressure and not necessarily the one who touches the pad first. Joanna Jastrzebska North Shields, Tyne and Wear, UK
Questions and answers should be concise. We reserve the right to edit items for clarity and style. Include a daytime telephone number and email address if you have one. Restrict questions to scientific enquiries about everyday phenomena. The writers of published answers will receive a cheque for £25 (or US$ equivalent). Reed Business Information Ltd reserves all rights to reuse question and answer material submitted by readers in any medium or format.
■ The pressure pad’s tolerances The final published time are supposed to require a may have to be scrutinised by swimmer’s touch before it will the referee if there has been a trigger a response. A pulse of mechanical problem, sometimes water would have to come from a compromise or average time a high-power nozzle to apply may be recorded at the referee’s enough pressure to trigger the pad. discretion. Sometimes the record A swimmer approaching the “In major events reaction end of a race cannot push a times off the starting narrow enough or strong enough stream of water to trigger the pad. blocks are also However, brushing the pad lightly electronically measured” may also not trigger it and so has to be disallowed if the these days timing officials check electronic timing device is in any overhead, high-speed cameras – way compromised. like those used in track races – if If a pad should malfunction the pad is just brushed or they during the course of a race, it is are uncertain of the winner for removed and exchanged between any reason. events which takes about Adrian Skinner 5 minutes. The new pad is tested Bournemouth, Dorset, UK by punching it manually while ■ The pads are screw-fixed to the timekeepers in a control room poolside along their top edge and monitor the effect. in close contact with the poolside In major events, reaction times behind. The swimmer’s positive off the starting blocks are also and forcible pressure on the pad electronically measured by must close any gap between the sensors and displayed instantly pad and the poolside, or it may on the scoreboard (this identifies not register. false starts) and the changeover You have to hit the pad quite time is also registered in relays, to firmly to register, either at show if the outgoing swimmer the turn or at the finish. Just left the blocks before the occasionally the pad does indeed incoming swimmer hit the pad. fail to register, either through Relay swimmers still in the water poor swimmer contact or pad while the race continues must malfunction. This is why there take care not to touch any of the are back-up timekeepers on each pads by mistake when they exit lane – both human and the pool, to avoid confusing the electronic – in order to verify a timing systems. result. If a world or championship Phil Sears record is at stake, there must be at Amateur Swimming Association least three timekeepers present, club coach and one of them has to be Dorking Swimming Club electronic. Westcott, Surrey, UK
New Scientist retains total editorial control over the content of The Last Word. Send questions and answers to The Last Word, New Scientist, Lacon House, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS, UK, by email to [email protected] or visit www.last-word.com (please include a postal address in order to receive payment for answers). For a list of all unanswered questions send an SAE to LWQlist at the above address.
Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? A brand new collection ight serious enquiry, brilliant insight cted and the hilariously unexpected Available from booksellers m/ and at www.newscientist.com/ polarbears
This week’s questions ON THE SPIKE
I was walking from Cowes on the Isle of Wight to Yarmouth along the coastal path in June. When nearing Yarmouth we saw this strange spike standing upright on a leaf (see photo). The top of the spike has broken off to the right. What created it? If it’s of any use, the weather was warm. David Winstanley Norwich, UK
ONE SMALL FOOTPRINT?
Why can’t one of our space telescopes, capable of seeing galaxies many light years away, be pointed at the site of the moon landings where one can assume there are some remnants from the visits. Would this definitively prove to any sceptics that humans landed on the moon? It would be a nice way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first landing. Liza Brooks Shrivenham, Wiltshire, UK
THE LAST WORD Touchy feely In Olympic swimming events, the winner is the first person to touch a pressure-sensitive wall pad at the end of the pool. How does this pad know that a person has touched it rather than just registering the pressure of splashing water? If a swimmer just brushed it, would it fail to register their finish?
■ At the end of each lane there is a touch pad 90 centimetres high, 240 cm wide and 1 cm thick. Touching the pad stops the clock. Omega, the manufacturer of the touch pads used during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, claimed that the pads react to the slightest touch from a swimmer’s hand, but not to the splashing of water. However, after the argument around Michael Phelps’s victory over Milorad Cavic in the 100 metres butterfly final at the games, later verified by digital images, it was revealed that a
“The manufacturer claims the pads react to the slightest touch but not to the splashing of water” pressure of approximately 3 kilograms per square centimetre must be applied to the pad to activate it and stop the clock. Therefore, it can be said that the victor is the person who touches the pad with enough pressure and not necessarily the one who touches the pad first. Joanna Jastrzebska North Shields, Tyne and Wear, UK
Questions and answers should be concise. We reserve the right to edit items for clarity and style. Include a daytime telephone number and email address if you have one. Restrict questions to scientific enquiries about everyday phenomena. The writers of published answers will receive a cheque for £25 (or US$ equivalent). Reed Business Information Ltd reserves all rights to reuse question and answer material submitted by readers in any medium or format.
■ The pressure pad’s tolerances The final published time are supposed to require a may have to be scrutinised by swimmer’s touch before it will the referee if there has been a trigger a response. A pulse of mechanical problem, sometimes water would have to come from a compromise or average time a high-power nozzle to apply may be recorded at the referee’s enough pressure to trigger the pad. discretion. Sometimes the record A swimmer approaching the “In major events reaction end of a race cannot push a times off the starting narrow enough or strong enough stream of water to trigger the pad. blocks are also However, brushing the pad lightly electronically measured” may also not trigger it and so has to be disallowed if the these days timing officials check electronic timing device is in any overhead, high-speed cameras – way compromised. like those used in track races – if If a pad should malfunction the pad is just brushed or they during the course of a race, it is are uncertain of the winner for removed and exchanged between any reason. events which takes about Adrian Skinner 5 minutes. The new pad is tested Bournemouth, Dorset, UK by punching it manually while ■ The pads are screw-fixed to the timekeepers in a control room poolside along their top edge and monitor the effect. in close contact with the poolside In major events, reaction times behind. The swimmer’s positive off the starting blocks are also and forcible pressure on the pad electronically measured by must close any gap between the sensors and displayed instantly pad and the poolside, or it may on the scoreboard (this identifies not register. false starts) and the changeover You have to hit the pad quite time is also registered in relays, to firmly to register, either at show if the outgoing swimmer the turn or at the finish. Just left the blocks before the occasionally the pad does indeed incoming swimmer hit the pad. fail to register, either through Relay swimmers still in the water poor swimmer contact or pad while the race continues must malfunction. This is why there take care not to touch any of the are back-up timekeepers on each pads by mistake when they exit lane – both human and the pool, to avoid confusing the electronic – in order to verify a timing systems. result. If a world or championship Phil Sears record is at stake, there must be at Amateur Swimming Association least three timekeepers present, club coach and one of them has to be Dorking Swimming Club electronic. Westcott, Surrey, UK
New Scientist retains total editorial control over the content of The Last Word. Send questions and answers to The Last Word, New Scientist, Lacon House, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS, UK, by email to [email protected] or visit www.last-word.com (please include a postal address in order to receive payment for answers). For a list of all unanswered questions send an SAE to LWQlist at the above address.
Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? A brand new collection ight serious enquiry, brilliant insight cted and the hilariously unexpected Available from booksellers m/ and at www.newscientist.com/ polarbears
This week’s questions ON THE SPIKE
I was walking from Cowes on the Isle of Wight to Yarmouth along the coastal path in June. When nearing Yarmouth we saw this strange spike standing upright on a leaf (see photo). The top of the spike has broken off to the right. What created it? If it’s of any use, the weather was warm. David Winstanley Norwich, UK
ONE SMALL FOOTPRINT?
Why can’t one of our space telescopes, capable of seeing galaxies many light years away, be pointed at the site of the moon landings where one can assume there are some remnants from the visits. Would this definitively prove to any sceptics that humans landed on the moon? It would be a nice way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first landing. Liza Brooks Shrivenham, Wiltshire, UK