Ten yards = 9.14400 m.
Therefore, using 9 m instead of 10 m would be more practical since the
difference would be 5.6698 inches less to make a 9 m first down than a 10
yard first down.
A 90 m field rather than a 100 yard field would shorten the playing
field length by 56.698 inches plus 5.6698 inches for each end zone. Such a
change would not require modifications to football stadiums. However, using
10 m increments rather than reducing the field length by less than 5 feet
for a 9 m increment field might not fit into current stadiums. Placement
of the goal posts would need to be adjusted and fields restriped in any
case.
How much a 90 m field rather than a 100 yard field would change
statistics would be questionable since the ball placement error by referees
in four downs probably exceeds 5.6698 inches.
Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carleton MacDonald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 8:56 PM
Subject: [USMA:41771] Re: Metric American Football
Metricating football (10 m for a first down instead of 10 yd) would give
slight advantage to teams that can defend well against the rush or the
short
pass. For a team good at the long pass, it wouldn't matter.
Carleton
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
Of Kimbrough Sherman
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 10:23
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:41768] Re: Metric American Football
Forget metric American football! I cannot foresee problems converting any
sport other than football to SI, as Soccer (International Football) has
always had difficult metric measures for dimensions created in yards. But
American football has two almost impossible barriers to conversion.
1. If we could convert all specifications from yards to meters, it
would
be hard to compare past performances with 10 yards for a first down to 10
meters or to use 9 meter measures as the qualification for a first down.
2. If "ten yards" became 10 meters, no stadium in the NFL, and probably
few stadia in the college ranks could accommodate a 120 meter by 50 meter
field. Maintaining yards as a football measure may have to stay for ever,
and to my mind, it wouldn't matter. I wouldn't care if horse racing kept
their furlongs, as long as the total race length is stated in meters.
Moving "quarter mile" posts to 400 meters would be no harder than the
conversion of running tracks thirty years ago.
Nonetheless, I think that the use of "millimeter" as a term of very short
distance is no small event. If this time it doesn't move into the U.S.
public consciousness, the next use will.
A. Kimbrough Sherman
Associate Professor
Dept. of Information Systems
and Operations Management
Loyola College in Maryland
4501 N. Charles Street
Baltimore 21210
410.617.2460 Fax.2118
"Ziser, Jesse" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 9/27/2008 10:21 PM >>>
This does not surprise me.
I think people who grew up in the United States and were taught metric
alongside WOMBATs sometimes
kind of mentally mix the two into one set of units. They see metric units
as filling in the
gaps. "centimeter" is sometimes (uncommonly) used in conversation to mean
"about a half-inch",
and millimeters are (more commonly) used for smaller lengths just because
the US "system" doesn't
provide a small enough unit. Speaking in "32nds of an inch" or some such
verbose nonsense just
isn't worth consuming the extra joules.
I've said it before: I really do believe most Americans know more metric
than they think they do.
--- James Frysinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
With a bit over 2 min left in the third quarter and just after a
reviewed call on a possible safety, the ball was placed "one millimeter
from the goal line", according to the lead announcer on the ESPN
broadcast.
Ironically, a penalty backed the ball back up into the end zone
resulting in a call of a safety against Indiana and in favor of Michigan
State.
That's my first observation of metric units being used in American
football. Yep, she said "one millimeter".
Jim
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(H) 931.657.3107
(C) 931.212.0267
