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Posts Tagged ‘stopwatches’

The Stopwatch Usage List

November 9th, 2009

Stopwatches have many uses, but nonetheless the main function is to keep and measure time. This is why coaches, athletes and sports times use stopwatches to set up time indications or keep track of progress by using the clocked times for future reference. However, other types of stopwatches also have other purposes.

Stopwatches are nothing other than hand held devices that clock time for various sports. This includes sports like track and field, swimming, car racing and other types of motor sports. However, stopwatches are also useful for evaluating times achieved when training.

Most stopwatches have to be started manually when an event starts and then manually stopped when it is over with. This is done when, for example, for runners of a certain distance. When the run starts the stopwatch is started and counts time, but as soon as the finish line has been reached the stop button is pushed and you have the exact time the runner needed for the given distance. This is often how trainers and coaches assess performance and progress of athletes.

There are two types of stopwatches used, the analog or digital. They also come in two designs with one looking very much like the familiar pocket watch and the other made to wear on your wrist. For a little tidbit of information the large clocks you are used to seeing in sport arenas, such as basketball or hockey, are known as stop clocks.

The stopwatch with digital technology is most likely more accurate than the standard analog stopwatch. The analog stopwatch, though, is a great gift for trainers and coaches who have just won some kind of competition and this is a practice often done by teams of students in high school or college.

Although there are different designs and models of stopwatches available, the modern stopwatches can come with a lot of functions, features and modes. This still does not make the traditional stopwatch useless, though. In fact, the standard stopwatch is still able to serve its purpose and is capable of countdowns, recording running times and timing laps. The modern stopwatches do have the advantage of having easier access and higher accuracy, on top of the basic functions of tracking laps times and calculating evaluations.

There are stopwatch models that allow for storing records of up to 50 lap times, while others only hold up to 10. Other digital designs allow for calculation of speed and time as long as the distance of a lane or track is known. This is done by entering the distance into the stopwatch. The watch then evaluates the previous records of the athlete and will come up with an average time of how many minutes or seconds it would take to cover the given distance.

Finally, the basic function of a stopwatch is as a countdown timer. The watch basically counts down to zero by setting it to a specific amount of time at the press of a button. Stopwatches are also used by coaches, trainers, and athletes to measure a workout regimen as well as an indicator that a specific exercise has exceeded a warm up period.

If you need to learn more about digital stop watch, drop by this website to read some good posts on mechanical stopwatch.

Oliver Richard Fitness , , , , , , , , ,

Picking Out The Right Stopwatch

September 28th, 2009

A stopwatch is a must for any sporting event. In fact, the event can’t go on if you don’t have a stopwatch and that is why it is so important to choose the right model. Many think it is going to be a simple task, since there is only one kind of stopwatch, but this is not true by a long shot! There are many different models with different functions and you have to know which you need for your intended purpose.

Swimming is a unique sporting event and it is of utmost importance that the competitors accurately be timed. Therefore, you need one that is both waterproof and capable of tracking laps. You can hold any stopwatch and although there is never an intention of letting it fall, it still happens that it drops into the water. This doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does you’ll have to dive in and retrieve it.

A stopwatch that stops functioning because it has fallen into water is not a wise choice for swimming events. Not all waterproof watches are the same, though, and you have to ensure that it is waterproof up to a certain depth. One that is water resistant up to only a foot is not what you need. The stopwatch chosen for swimming events also needs to be splash proof, because you don’t want to lose track of the swimmers because of water drops on the display.

Track and field is another place where you’re going to need a rather specialized stopwatch. For this you will need one that is very durable because track can be a rough sport. You also need one that is able to track the laps of multiple runners and can be reset easily. Track and field is fast paced, so you want to make sure that it has easy to access buttons so you aren’t fumbling around trying to get it to work properly.

Those were just a couple of examples of sports that you need a stopwatch for. Other considerations that you need to make before making a final choice include the instruction manual. Check to see if the stopwatch you are considering has a manual at all and if it does how good it is.

Most of the time people don’t expect to need a manual for a stopwatch. However, it is a great thing to have so that you can look up any unknown functions that you run across when using the watch. For those cases when you don’t know what a function is called or what it does, it is nice to be able to turn to the manual. If it is a good one, it will be much more helpful than one that is poorly written and confusing.

The above mentioned details are just a few of the considerations that you need to keep in mind when looking around for a stopwatch. If you follow the tips given, there should be no problem in finding the right stopwatch for any sporting event.

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Assistant Editor Fitness , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Stopwatch Relics

September 24th, 2009

It is not unusual for people to wonder where the stopwatch originated. There are some that would dare say that ancient Egyptians were the creators of the first stopwatch and it is not as far-fetched as it would sound, because many ancient civilizations were responsible for inventing some advanced technological items. If you want proof, just take a look at the pyramids of Egypt and then figure out just how they managed to build them. Since it is impossible to ask the ancient Egyptians to show us a stopwatch of theirs, we can only start with the earliest known stopwatches which were made by Leon Breitling back in 1884.

This watch brand was expensive, because they were originally developed to be used in the aviation field. Although that was the intent, people started to purchase them and wear them as a status symbol. These original stopwatches were made before the electronics were developed and therefore are mechanical with a winding mechanism.

The majority of these have a large face, so while they would be slightly awkward to wear as an actual watch it didn’t seem to stop anyone from doing it. You have to remember that this was in a time where anything expensive had to be good, and therefore it was a real status symbol.

Now let’s look at a stopwatch that has been a popular icon for the longest time. For more than fifty years the public has been enthralled by the popular show “60 Minutes”. There was always a stopwatch up in the corner of the screen but did you ever think about the fact that they didn’t have CGI back then? Yes, that stopwatch was real and for well over fifty years it sat there ticking away. Some would argue that it was the stopwatch that made the show so popular when it aired on September 24, 1968.

It may have spent more than 50 years ticking away the time for the TV show, but it now can be seen in the Smithsonian where it is displayed along with other famous television icons. It was not thrown away like garbage after it was no longer needed. The importance of this stopwatch for the show is something that actually is quite surprising for many people.

Stopwatches are still basically the same, even though they have advanced over time. They now keep track of laps, can be used to measure time for lab experiments and many other things, as well as keeping track of time in several different countries. This is a big difference to the functions of the original stopwatch that was invented, but it is still important to keep in mind the humble roots.

Regardless of what new inventions come out nowadays, they all have one thing in common and that is the fact that there was a long, hard road that had to be traveled beforehand. Next time you are holding a stopwatch, take some time to think about the history of this device and the role it has played in society. You are bound to come up with more examples than have been mentioned in this article.

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Oliver Richard Fitness , , , , , , , , , , ,