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----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Long
Sent: Friday, 2004-04-09 14:40
Subject: Re: [USMA:29477] Re: metric in sports I'll try to take each point as you've written:
# -- The official Canadian Football League field, as defined by the
league's rules, is "110 yards long by 65 yards wide." Source: http://www.cfl.ca/CFLRulebook/rule_1.html#1.
That would seem to put the dimensions fairly close to metric specs.
# -- Americans specs were used when baseball was
introduced abroad -- usually by American military stationed there -- and
they've stuck for a variety of reasons. That's still the case. I've seen
metric conversions for baseball dimensions taken out to hundredths when they
were displayed.
# -- Basketball was first invented in 1891 by Springfield College (Mass.)
Canadian-born phys ed instructor Dr. James Naismith. His original 13 rules (http://www.hoophall.com/history/original_13rules.htm) were
published on Jan. 15, 1892 and -- noteably -- do not include specified court
dimensions. The first games were played in Springfield's gymnasium; believed to
be Dec. 1891. The sport was first played in the Olympics in 1936 in Berlin.
No doubt, dimensions are laid out for Olympic basketball games and used
elsewhere. They are specified and described in metric units, but the game was
not designed metrically. NBA and NCAA dimensions differ from American high
school dimensions. It's worth noting that the Olympics' own web site says "a
three-point line, or arc, around the hoop allows three points for baskets from
beyond 6.25 metres and two points from inside that distance."
# -- Track and field and swimming are the most prominent examples of
sports played in America with playing fields (for want of a better term) that
conform to metric specs at every level of competition.Oh, there are still
440-yard track ovals and 100-yard pools, but they're a tad hard to find nowadays
because the attitude among competitors is to conform
to international (metric) specs.
Jim Long
Victorville, Calif.
-----Original Message----- From: Mighty Chimp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Apr 9, 2004 9:43 AM To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [USMA:29477] Re: metric in sports Whatever happened to the 100 m x 60 m football field
proposed for Canada in the 1970s? Is it used anywhere today?
What about baseball in Japan? Would the perfect
square be laid out as 27.432 m or rounded to either 27 m or 28 m or maybe even
30 m?
If I'm not mistaken, basketball is an olympic sport.
What are the official olympic field dimensions that the olympic rules would
specify?
Why original question was meant to find out if American
sports, when played in hard core metric countries, use exact conversions of
American units or take liberties and use rounded metric units.
Euric
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