Just how fast is usain bolt

If he could maintain that speed over the whole m, with a flying start, he would record a time of 8. Though we see that he does indeed conform to the human limits of about 23 miles per hour, his top speed is mind-boggling. Live Science has some great comparisons with animals' speed.

That hardly negates the fact my jaw will be firmly placed on the ground after what is sure to be some amazing sprints from Usain Bolt and his swift colleagues. Follow gabezal. Even for those with experience in track and field, crossing the finishing line within 10 seconds seemed impossible. Regardless of the result, Bolt was happy about the fact that everyone tried their best. It was horrible. But they did well. I could see the effort in their face.

How fast is Usain Bolt? The world's fastest man Usain Bolt is the fastest man in the world, but just how fast is he? That's the kind of fact a sports engineer can work out! We can easily calculate Usain Bolt's average speed. Speed is the change in distance over time. We know how long it took him to run and metres, so we can work out his speed. How fast is Usain Bolt compared to other land animals? Other land animals are much faster than humans.

Even a domestic cat beats Usain Bolt! London Olympics Will Usain Bolt beat his own world record again? How fast did he run? Well, meters in 9. But that was his average speed over the whole race. He went slower than that at the beginning and end and faster than that in the middle. More detailed information is available from his split times recorded every 10 meters down the track. He covered the first 10 meters in 1.

His fastest splits occurred at 50 to 60 meters, 60 to 70 meters and 70 to 80 meters. He blazed through those meter sections in 0. In the final 10 meters, when he eased up and broke form, he decelerated to an average speed of The following graph shows the elapsed times at which Bolt crossed 10 meters, 20 meters, 30 meters, and so on, up to the 9. Together the dots and the line segments between them form a polygonal curve. Then they join to form a nearly straight line, indicating the high and steady speed that he maintained for most of the race.

We know that his fastest average speed, over a meter section, occurred somewhere between 50 and 80 meters, but an average speed over 10 meters is not quite what we want; we are interested in his peak speed. Imagine that Usain Bolt was wearing a speedometer. At what precise moment was he running the fastest? And exactly how fast was that? The concept seems almost paradoxical.

At any instant, Usain Bolt was at precisely one place. He was frozen, as in a snapshot. So what would it mean to speak of his speed at that instant? Speed can only occur over a time interval, not in a single instant. The enigma of instantaneous speed goes far back in the history of mathematics and philosophy, to around B.