Fractions of a Second at the Olympics

When athletes are racing one-by-one instead of next to each other, the closeness of the results are a lot harder to perceive. To illustrate how close some of the results in Vancouver were, the New York Times created  cool interactive piece called Fractions of a Second: An Olympic Musical. Turn your speakers on and try the women’s speedskating 1,000-m.  Can you tell a difference between the top two finishers?

Even with both the audio and visual cues, the .02 of a second difference is impossible for me to distinguish. The physical distance separating the two Olympians would be a lot more meaningful to me. The fact that we are much better at distinguishing distance  is one reason why you’ll notice that consumer products such as turn-by-turn GPS units will use distance instead of time to inform drivers when they need to turn. Distance is tangible, whereas time is invisible and fleeting.

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