geniice t1_iu4mmnh wrote on October 28, 2022 at 2:51 PM

Reply to comment by JuzoItami in TIL Devon Allen, track & field athlete/Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver, was disqualified in the World Athletic Championships for a controversial false start. The starting blocks measured his reaction time from the time the gun went off at 0.099, which is 0.001 seconds faster than legally allowed. by The_Critical_Cynic

> However... (also IIRC) that 0.1 seconds standard isn't actually based on science - it's literally just a number some bureaucrat from the World Athletic Championships decided upon because it sounded good.

There are a bunch of tests on the limits of human reaction times (mostly how fast you can push a button after a screen flashes). Human limit is around .2 seconds. Human perception is around 0.1 but it take a bit of time for humans to do anything with that.

So .1 seconds is a good point to chose since it gives you enough of a margin of error not to be an issue but not so massive that athletes can rely on anticipating the gun.