The Math of the Fastest Human Alive via Felix Salmon.Okay, first off, mathematically, it looks like the theoretical limit of how fast humans can run the 100 meter dash is somewhere around 9.2 seconds, but it looks like we won’t get there for hundreds of years.
But second off, you can also see that Usain Bolt is running much faster than humans ought to be running right now. This should give you an inkling of just how special these performances we’re seeing from him are. We shouldn’t be seeing times like this until the 2030s. Which means, honestly, that it ought to take around 30 years for someone else to come along and break his record.
So what do we learn, practically, from doing this math? That watching Usain Bolt run is like watching Bob Beamon’s long jump in 1968; it’s a record that should stand for at least a generation.
Unless, you know, he can break his own record again.
これまでの100メートル世界新記録の経緯から換算すると、ボルトの記録は2030年代に出ている「はず」だった。つまり彼は約30年分の記録をひとっ飛びしてしまった、と。凄まじい。
