Why does Oshkosh Jog Around the High School Track 98 Times Every Day Worksheet Answers?

Oshkosh's Daily Jogging Routine

Oshkosh jogs around the high school track 98 times a day to stay in top physical form. Oshkosh competes in track and field events and wants to stay at the top of his/her game. Oshkosh wants to be the best at every event he/she competes in.

Question:

Why might the new stopwatch with an uncertainty of +0.05 seconds not be helpful for the track coach when timing sprints with close finishes?

Answer:

Final answer: The new stopwatch with an uncertainty of +0.05 seconds may not be helpful for the track coach when timing sprints with close finishes. For sprint finishes closer than the stopwatch's uncertainty margin, it may not accurately determine the winner.

Explanation: Given the school's last track meet results, where the first-place sprinter's time was 12.04 seconds and the second-place sprinter's time was 12.07 seconds, the question at hand is whether the coach's new stopwatch will be helpful for timing the sprint team. The new stopwatch has an uncertainty of +0.05 seconds. In timing events where sprinters are clocking times that are very close, such as the example given, a timing uncertainty of +0.05 seconds can be significant. If the track coach's team regularly clocks 100m sprints between 11.49 seconds and 15.01 seconds, the uncertainty of 0.05 seconds could potentially affect the accuracy of determining which sprinter truly won if the race is close.

In the situation described, the coach's new stopwatch would not be helpful for timing the sprint team if the goal is to differentiate between times as close as 0.03 seconds, since the stopwatch's uncertainty exceeds this margin. However, if the races typically have larger differences in finishing times, then the new stopwatch should be sufficient for general timing purposes.