Tuesday, February 16, 2010


2010 Winter Olympic Games
Justin Tyme - Reporter

Winter, Winner!
In the men's Olympic Freestyle skiing event, the difference in time between Gold and Bronze medals was .09 of a second. I'm not sure I am mathematically qualified to write such a minuscule number correctly. Would you say .09/second is as quick as wink?

Isn't that a human definition of the fastest measure of time "quick as a wink or "the blink of an eye?" Blinking is the quickest voluntary and involuntary reaction the body controls. It is our quickest reflex. So how long is that really?

Well I looked it up and the best answer for the length of time it takes to blink is .1 to .15 of a second. If that's the case then, you can do the math, .09 of a second is a lot shorter than a blink?

If a race for speed is determined by half the time it takes to blink, then the human body can move faster than it has time to biologically react. Driving 80 mph on the freeway in my car yesterday I was seven miles slower than the average speed of the men's Olympic luge runs. I can't imagine going that fast laying directly on the ground, my back supported only by two large butter knives.

The question is: just because we can propel the human body down solid ice at those speeds, should we?

You tell me,
Justin Tyme

1 comment:

  1. Justin Tyme! I get it. Steve Allen was another master of the name game.

    ReplyDelete