The problem with this logic is that team scores are reguraly determined at a fixed point in space, not time. Such is the finish line - they do not freeze the race when the winner crosses and count places, rather they let all runners finish and record their place at a fixed point in time, namely the finish line. The same occurs for mid-race judgements; when a coach looks at the place of his team midway through the race, unless at a very special course with a long open stretch, he takes down the place of each runner as they pass. While places surely do change hands after the point, I think the notion of of a "halfway" score is a good measure which adds excitement to the racing atmosphere for the spectators, especially those with litle experience watching the sport.
just some thoughts... john -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of ROBERT J HOWELL Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 12:53 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: t-and-f: Heisenberg, Chip Timing I haven't read about this yet, and since there is no college cross to talk about, what the hell. Heisenberg said, "The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa." Heisenberg was talking about sub atomic particles, but this has some bearing on this chip timing discussion. Chip timing at certain intervals gives incomplete information, necessarily. One can determine the exact instant that each runner crosses a certain point, and possibly determine that person's position within the race, but one can never know exactly, with chip timing, what the team score is. By the time the 5th runner gets to a given point, the runners ahead of him may have and probably will have changed positions. Chip timing mixes each runner's split(cross section) with the team's result, wich is taken over time(longitudinal). Because a team has five scorers who don't all finish at the same time or cross a given point at the same time, we cannot figure their total score by merely adding their positions at some fixed geographical point. The team exists across time and space. We can know the score at a given time, but not at a given point. We can know each member's place and split at a given point, but that won't necessarily give us the team score. Runners do change positions over time. What does this have to do with anything? Nothing that I know of. But there was so much esoteric crap going around that I figured another piece of it would have a negligible marginal impact on the list. Once I go back to school next week, I won't have enough time to write about things like this anymore, so don't hold your breath waiting for my next post. Since I didn't mention this earlier, we need some indoor meets and a new thread. Keeping it real. Out, Robbie Howell
