Hi Jerry,
I wrote an article describing these fields for the UKMA blog site. You can see it at http://www.metricviews.org.uk/2007/11/16/how-big-hectare/. American football is one of the few sports that I know of where numbers are written onto the field. Golf is another, but these are much more discreet. In rugby, the term "inside the opponents 22" is in common use. _____ From: Jeremiah MacGregor [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 31 January 2009 17:00 To: [email protected]; U.S. Metric Association Subject: Re: [USMA:42696] Re: Geelong at the Super Bowl Martin, Are either of these sports set up to where the field is marked with numbers as in American football and the units and numbers are well a part of the game? When Rugby changed from imperial to metric, was there any physical change in the set-up of the field to correspond to the new metric numbers or are the metric numbers just approximations? 25 yard is closer to 23 m then it is to 22 m, thus a noticeable changed would have occurred. Do participants make use of units in speech as in American football or is it all silent? American baseball is set-up in feet and inches but the field isn't marked in such and measurements aren't a part of the playing. Jerry _____ From: Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 10:37:24 AM Subject: [USMA:42696] Re: Geelong at the Super Bowl Association football (which is played in many countries) uses imperial units (with metric equivalents) in its rulebook. In fairness, the field sizes were designed in the UK and have not changed in a hundred years. Rugby Union however changed all their measurements from imperial to metric in the 1970's. the 25 yd line became the 22 m line etc. _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeremiah MacGregor Sent: 31 January 2009 14:31 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:42688] Re: Geelong at the Super Bowl Pat, Is it just American sports (at least football and baseball) that are not metric? Or are there others that you know of? I know the Olympics are all metric but not every sport played appears in the Olympics. Jerry _____ From: Pat Naughtin < [email protected] > To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Cc: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 1:39:51 AM Subject: [USMA:42680] Re: Geelong at the Super Bowl On 2009/01/31, at 3:44 PM, Jeremiah MacGregor wrote: Pat, Does Australian Football use yards or meters? Jerry Dear Jerry, All Australian football only uses metres for all measurements. For example, a ball must travel 15 metres before a 'mark' (a clean catch) is awarded a free kick. This might give you a feel for the rules http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA4gmMvye5M although there's nothing like seeing a game live, especially if the Geelong Cats are playing - and winning. And you might observe that Australian Rules football has nothing whatsoever to do with any other football played anywhere else in the world. size=1 width="100%" align=center> From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 3:20:54 AM Subject: [USMA:42625] Geelong at the Super Bowl Dear All, This is completely off topic, but those of you who watch the Super Bowl might be interested to see a player from Geelong playing for the Cardinals in that game. Ben Graham used to be the captain of the Geelong team who played in the Australian Football League. Graham is the first ever Australian to play in the Super Bowl. Australian football is quite unique and it is nothing like the football played in the USA . See http://www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2009/01/29/Cardinals_coach_praises_Ben_G raham_on_Super_Bowl_eve for details, and I suspect that many Geelong Cat's supporters will be watching their first ever Super Bowl this year. Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA . Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada , the UK , and the USA . See http://www.metricationmatters.com <http://www.metricationmatters.com/> for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
