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Simon Ammann 108m

February 13th, 2010

Simon Ammann won the gold Olympic Medal on HS106 ski jumping hill in Vancouver. He jumped 108m (118.1yd, 354.3ft). This is new hill record. Previous was set by Guido Landert and it was 105 meters (344.49ft)

1. Simon Ammann Swiss 105m (344.49ft) 135.5 108m (354.3ft) 141 276.50
2. Adam Małysz Poland 103.5m (339.57ft) 132.5 105m (344.49ft) 137 269.50
3. Gregor Schlierenzauer Austria 101.5m (333.01ft)128 106.5m (349.41) 140 268.00

Vancouver Sports Events Distances

February 9th, 2010

The tables below lists Vancouver sports events distances in kilometers, meters, miles, yards and feet. Click the link to go to length converter online and get more conversion units.

Vancouver Men’s Sports Distances Conversion Table

Event Kilometers Meters Miles Yards Feet
Biathlon
Relay 4×7.5km 4×7,500 4×4.66 4×8,202 4×24,606
Sprint 10km 10,000 6.21 10,936 32,808
Pursuit 12.5km 12,500 7.77 13,670 41,010
Mass Start 15km 15,000 9.32 16,404 49,212
Individual 20km 20,000 12.43 21,872 65,617
Cross-country skiing
Freestyle 15km 15,000 9.32 16,404 49,212
Pursuit 30km 30,000 18.64 32,808 98,425
Classical 50km 50,000 31.07 54,681 164,042
Relay 4×10km 4×10,000 4×6.21 4×10,936 4×32,808
Short Track
0.5km 500 0.31 547 1,640
1km 1,000 0.62 1,094 3,281
1.5km 1,500 0.93 1,640 4,921
5km 5,000 3.11 5,468 16,404
Speed Skating
0.5km 500 0.31 547 1,640
1km 1,000 0.62 1,094 3,281
1.5km 1,500 0.93 1,640 4,921
5km 5,000 3.11 5,468 16,404
10km 10,000 6.21 10,936 32,808

Vancouver Womens’s Sports Distances Conversion Table

Event Kilometers Meters Miles Yards Feet
Biathlon
Relay 4×6 km 4×6000 4×3.73 4×6,562 4×19,685
Sprint 7.5 km 7,500 4.66 8,202 24,606
Pursuit 10 km 10,000 6.21 10,936 32,808
Mass Start 12.5 km 12,500 7.77 13,670 41,010
Individual 15 km 15,000 9.32 16,404 49,212
Cross-country skiing
Freestyle 10 km 10,000 6.21 10,936 32,808
Pursuit 15 km 15,000 9.32 16,404 49,212
Classical 30 km 30,000 18.64 32,808 98,425
Relay 4×5 km 4×5,000 4×3.11 4×5,468 4×16,404
Short Track
0.5 km 500 0.31 547 1,640
1 km 1,000 0.62 1,094 3,281
1.5 km 1,500 0.93 1,640 4,921
3 km 3,000 1.86 3281 9843
Speed Skating
0.5 km 500 0.31 547 1,640
1 km 1,000 0.62 1,094 3,281
1.5 km 1,500 0.93 1,640 4,921
3 km 3,000 1.86 3281 9843
5 km 5,000 3.11 5,468 16,404

Tools: Distance Conversion Online

Vancouver Ski Jumping Hills

February 8th, 2010

There are two ski jumping hills in the Vancouver’s Whistler Olympic Park – Large Hill (LH HS140/K125) and Normal Hill (NH HS106/K95). Technical data and the hill records (given in meters and feet) are available in the tables below.

Whistler Olympic Large Hill HS140 (K125)
Hill Record 149.0m (488.85ft)
Gregor Schlierenzauer 2009-01-25
Hill Size 140m (459.32ft)
K-point 125m (410.1ft)
Takeoff gradient 11.25°
Landing gradient 35.0°
Construction year 2007
Spectator capacity 10,000
Whistler Olympic Normal Hill HS106 (K95)
Hill Record 105.0m (344.49ft)
Guido Landert 2008-02-28
Hill Size 106m (347.77ft)
K-point 95m (311.68ft)
Takeoff gradient 11.0°
Landing gradient 34.0°
Construction year 2007
Spectator capacity 10,000

Source: fisskijumping.com

HillSize (HS) – distance between take-off and landing field where the gradient is equal to 32.5° (see: L-point on the image below)

K-point (calculation line or calculation point) – Skiers are awarded 60 points if they land on the K Line. Skiers not landing on the K Line receive or lose points for every metre (3 ft) they miss the mark by, depending on if they surpass it or fall short, respectively. The value of a meter is determined from the size of the hill.
How K-point and HillSize are calculated, see the image below
(source: Whistler 140 Profile)

ski-jumping-hill

Useful tools: Length Converter

Downhill skiing speed

February 8th, 2010

It should be obvious that the maximum and average speed in downhill skiing strongly depends on the course racer runs on. On a typical FIS-approved, international-level course racers can run about 130 km/h (80mph) but some courses can be faster. For example, in certain sections of “Streif” course in Kitzbühel, Austria racers can run up to 140 kilometers per hour (87 miles per hour) (Course Start at 1.665m/5462.6ft, finish 805m/2641.08ft, vertical drop 860m/2821.52ft, length 3.312m/10866.14ft, average gradient 27%, maximum gradient 85%, minimum gradient 2%)

Right from the start, racers require a great deal of courage and self-confidence to fully charge the course, launching off to jumps of 50 m to 80 m at the sharp edge into Mausefalle. The Compression following Mausefalle has proved fatal to many a favorite in his struggle to resist the tremendous forces acting on him. (Source: hahnenkamm.com)

Vancouver 2010 downhill men will run February 13th, 2010 on Dave Murray downhill track in Whistler Creek (length 3158m, vertical drop 853m, maximum gradient 47%, average gradient 28% Source:scribd.com )

Speed skiing
Speed skiing is the sport of skiing downhill in a straight line as quickly as possible. It is one of the fastest non-motorized sports on land … The current world record is 251.4 km/h (156 mph), held by Simone Origone. Speed skiers regularly exceed 200 km/h (125 mph), which is even faster than the terminal velocity of a free-falling skydiver; about 193 km/h (120 mph) in the belly-to-earth position

Speed skiing official world records
Men: Simone Origone, Italy – 251.4 km/h (156.2 mph), April 2006 Les Arcs, France
Women: Sanna Tidstrand, Sweden – 242.59 km/h (150.74 mph), April 2006 Les Arcs, France

Useful tools: Speed Converter, Length Converter

Human Height Conversion Table

February 5th, 2010
ft in inches centimeters
5′0” 60in 152.40cm
5′1” 61in 154.94cm
5′2” 62in 157.48cm
5′3” 63in 160.02cm
5′4” 64in 162.56cm
5′5” 65in 165.10cm
5′6” 66in 167.74cm
5′7” 67in 170.18cm
5′8” 68in 172.72cm
5′9” 69in 175.26cm
5′10” 70in 177.80cm
5′11” 71in 180.34cm
6′0” 72in 182.88cm
6′1” 73in 185.45cm
6′2” 74in 187.96cm
6′3” 75in 190.50cm
6′4” 76in 193.04cm
6′5” 77in 195.58cm
6′6” 78in 198.12cm
6′7” 79in 200.66cm
6′8” 80in 203.20cm
6′9” 81in 205.74cm
6′10” 82in 208.28cm
6′11” 83in 210.82cm
7′0” 84in 213.36cm
7′1” 85in 215.90cm
7′2” 86in 218.44cm
The table allows you to fast and easily convert most common human heights between values given in feet and inches, inches and centimeters. There is no column for hight given in meters because conversion from centimeters to meters is extremely easy (1m is equal to 100cm. To divide number of centimeters by 100, move the decimal point two places to the right, after that value preceding the decimal point will refer to number of meters and two digits after decimal point will refer to number of centimeters. Example: 162.56cm is equal to 1.6256m is equal to a little more then 1 meter and 62cm).

The table lists only most common human heights (more then 95% of adult human population should meet the criteria: higher then 5 inches and shorter then 7ft 2in) but there are some interesting exceptions – the tallest and the shortest. (To make other conversions try height converter)

Tallest People

At 2.57 m (8 ft 5 in), Leonid Stadnyk, of Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine, is believed to be the world’s tallest living man, although his height is disputed because of his refusal to be measured. The current proven tallest man is Sultan Kosen of Turkey who stands at 2.47 m (8 ft 1 in), overtaking previous world record holder Bao Xishun of Inner Mongolia, China at 2.36 m (7 ft 9 in) (interestingly, He Pingping, the shortest man in the world, is also from Inner Mongolia). The tallest man in modern history was Robert Pershing Wadlow from Illinois in the United States, who was born in 1918 and stood 2.72 m (8 ft 11 in) at the time of his death in 1940. Until her death in 2008, Sandy Allen was the tallest woman in the world at 2.32 m (7 ft 7+1⁄2 in). Currently Yao Defen of China is claimed to be the tallest woman in the world at 2.33 m (7 ft 7+1⁄2 in), but this is not confirmed by the Guiness Book of World Records.
Source: wikipedia.org

Shortest Men

Khagendra Thapa Magar from Nepal stands at only 22 inches (56 cm) tall according to Guinness World Records.
Gul Mohammed – Shortest man ever verified, measuring only 22.4 inches (57 cm), according to Guinness World Records.
Younis Edwan – Shortest man claimant, is said to be 25 inches (64 cm) tall.
He Pingping – Shortest man currently living (mobile) at 74 centimetres (29 in), possibly the shortest man in the People’s Republic of China.
Lin Yu-chih – Shortest man currently living (immobile) at 67.5 centimetres (26.6 in), according to Guinness World Records
Source: wikipedia.org

Shortest Women

Pauline Musters – at 23 inches (58 cm) tall, recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the shortest woman ever recorded.
Madge Bester – 65 cm in 1998
Lucia Zarate – Smallest woman claimant and the earliest studied example of microcephalic osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type
Jyoti Amge – 23-and-a-half inches tall, weighing 12 pounds.
Source: wikipedia.org

Game Online PONG PING

January 28th, 2010

Are you tired of units conversion? …. changing meters to yards, fahrenheits to celsius, meters per seconds to feet per minutes, calculating speed could be a little boring :) So, let’s  get a break!

We made simple javascript based, pong-like online game (do you remember first, hm … hard to say computer … maybe ‘an electronic game’. It seems to be an ancient game, right?). Rules are simple. Don’t allow the ball to hit the right side wall. It is called PONG PING because … why not? … it resembles a table tennis called PING PONG and the name seems to us … hm, … funny? Never mind, enjoy :)

Here is the game –> PONG PING game online

pong-ping

PS. Don’t worry, we’ll get back to units of measurment soon :)

Distance between Earth and Sun

January 13th, 2010

Couple of days ago I was asked, if I know how far is the Sun from the Earth. I realized that I have no idea and I don’t even know if it is half a million, one million, hundred million miles or more.  My answer was: “I don’t know” but, after a while, … hey, hey  I’m able to estimate the distance between Earth and Sun!

I know that the Sun’s light travels to Earth about 8-9 minutes and I know that the speed of light is about 300,000,000 meters per second. By the way, it’s easier to remember the speed of light in metric system because it’s almost round number (exactly 299,792,458 m/s), in miles per second it is 186,282 (about 671 million miles per hour).

So, let’s calculate: (you can use our Online Speed Calculator - Earth To Sun Distance Calculation)
8.5 minutes is equal to 8.5*60 seconds = 510 seconds (let’s make it 500, will be easier to multiply)
Every second light can travel 300,000 kilometers (1 km=1000 meters).
So, the Sun is 500*300,000 kilometers away from the Earth. That gives us 150,000,000 (150 million kilometers)
which is 93,210,000 miles (1 km is equal to 0.6214).

That was the estimation and what is the exact distance from Earth to the Sun?

As we can read in wikipedia Earth’s aphelion (farthest distance beetwen two astronomical objects) is 152,097,701 km, perihelion (closest distance) is 147,098,074 km and the semi-major axis (average distance) is equal to 149,597,887.5 km. So, as you can see, our calculation is very good and approximation error is small.

Useful  tools :

Speed Calculator Online

January 6th, 2010

Today Speed Calculator Online has been launched. This is 3 in 1 calculator. The tool allows you to calculate average speed having traveled distance and time or calculate traveled distance having speed and time or you can fast and easy find traveling time having average speed and traveled distance.

Like all of ours tools (calculator and converters) you will get the answer very fast – the answer is displayed as you type – no button ‘Compute’, ‘Ok’ or ‘Calculate’ is needed.

You can, of course, input your data in different unit of measure. Distance in inches to leagues (US and Imperial system of measurement), millimeters to kilometers (metric system) or even in nautical system (cables, nautical miles and nautical leagues). Speed is displayed or can be inputed in inches, feet, yards, miles, leagues, millimeters, centimeters, decimeters, meters kilometers, nautical miles, cables, nautical leagues per second/minute/hour.

Enjoy.

First To Celebrate New Year

December 30th, 2009

2010 is comming. Because the World is divided into time zones, the new year moves progressively around the globe as the start of the day ushers in the New Year. The first country to celebrate New Year is Line Islands (Kiribati, Caroline Island) (time zone UTC+14), the last one are Baker Island, Howland Island (UTC-12).

Here is online tool : What Time is New Year celebrated around the World  that shows to you all time zones and answers the question ‘What Time does particular country or region Celebrate New Year’. If you click on the row in the table, to indicate your time zone,, the tool will show you the time (in your local time) when New Year comes to countries around the World.

As you can see, first country to celebrate New Year 2010 is Line Islands (UTC+14). The people of Line Islands will celebrate New Year, of course, at 0:00 01.01.2010 of their time but at 10:00 am London (UTC+0) time, 20:00 (8:00pm) Melbourne And Sydney time, 5:00am NYC, Toronto, Washington time, 2:00 am  Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Vancouver, Tijuana time, etc.

See also: Calendar 2010 online, Calendar 2010 printable, New Year Webcam list

List of US Federal Holidays 2010

December 29th, 2009
Holiday 2010 Other Years
New Year’s Day Friday, January 1 January 1
Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Monday, January 18 3rd Monday in January
Washington’s Birthday Monday, February 15* 3rd Monday in February
Memorial Day Monday, May 31 Last Monday in May
Independence Day Monday, July 5** July 4
Labor Day Monday, September 6 1st Monday in September
Columbus Day Monday, October 11 2nd Monday in October
Veterans Day Thursday, November 11 November 11
Thanksgiving Day Thursday, November 25 4th Thursday in November
Christmas Day Friday, December 24*** December 25


* This holiday is designated as “Washington’s Birthday” in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code, which is the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees. Though other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it is our policy to always refer to holidays by the names designated in the law.
** July 4, 2010 (the legal public holiday for Independence Day), falls on a Sunday. For most Federal employees, Monday, July 5, will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes. (See section 3(a) of Executive order 11582, February 11, 1971.)
*** December 25, 2010 (the legal public holiday for Christmas Day), falls on a Saturday. For most Federal employees, Friday, December 24, will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes. (See 5 U.S.C. 6103(b).)
Source: U.S. Office of Personnel Management: www.opm.gov

A free, printable calendar with marked US Federal Holidays can be found here : Online 2010 Calendar with Holidays

If you wish to view how the World celebrates New Year 2010, see New Year 2010 webcam list – this list lists webcams placed or facing popular places where people celebrate New Year Eve e.g. Times Square (NYC), Trafalgar Square (London), Harbour Bridge (Sydney), Main Square (Cracow), Eiffel Tower (Paris) etc.