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Have you guys seen teams measure the track prior to running? I feel that it is a legit issue because several times, supervisors just use some sort of crappy meter stick or something to put it together. I heard from some with nats experience that even the EV tracks at nationals were off by a couple cm, which can make a big big difference. If you have seen teams measure the track, do they simply use a metric tape measure of some sort?

We measure using a long tape measure.

Last year at nationals, a team measured the scrambler track and they found it was off.

I suspect it's less about the track being off than it is about the competitors having measured it slightly differently than the event supervisors. Regardless, as long as competitors are allowed to measure the track themselves it's a moot point since they can adjust to how they measure - much as with temperature predictions in Thermodynamics.

Unome wrote:I suspect it's less about the track being off than it is about the competitors having measured it slightly differently than the event supervisors. Regardless, as long as competitors are allowed to measure the track themselves it's a moot point since they can adjust to how they measure - much as with temperature predictions in Thermodynamics.

I beg to differ,
these measurements were taken using means of laser distance measuring tools, which def have far more accuracy than a metric tape. Also, the scrambler track last year was off by i think half a meter (the ES was kind enough to let those who ran earlier rerun), but was still quite a mishap.

shrewdPanther46 wrote:

Unome wrote:I suspect it's less about the track being off than it is about the competitors having measured it slightly differently than the event supervisors. Regardless, as long as competitors are allowed to measure the track themselves it's a moot point since they can adjust to how they measure - much as with temperature predictions in Thermodynamics.

I beg to differ,
these measurements were taken using means of laser distance measuring tools, which def have far more accuracy than a metric tape. Also, the scrambler track last year was off by i think half a meter (the ES was kind enough to let those who ran earlier rerun), but was still quite a mishap.

That doesn't really address my point. It doesn't ultimately matter whether the event supervisor's distance is different from the competitor's, even if by half a meter or more - as long as competitors are all allowed to measure the track themselves, the only effect that can't be easily mitigated is less setup time.