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Does it really matter? American broadcasters broadcasting to an American audience.
This. I appreciate the NBC announcers calculating meters and millimeters into feet and inches for me. If I'm watching sports on TV, math is the least of the exercises I want to put my brain through.
This. I appreciate the NBC announcers calculating meters and millimeters into feet and inches for me. If I'm watching sports on TV, math is the least of the exercises I want to put my brain through.
The point is, if you are not typically into the sports, you probably do not know what the results are supposed to be anyway. So there is no big difference for you.
For those who are into the sports, meters and millimeters are always used, even if they are American athletes. They memorize the world records etc. in meters.
The point is, if you are not typically into the sports, you probably do not know what the results are supposed to be anyway. So there is no big difference for you.
For those who are into the sports, meters and millimeters are always used, even if they are American athletes. They memorize the world records etc. in meters.
I disagree. If you're not typically into sports, the translation to feet is even more of a help, especially as an American (and, given that this is an American broadcaster, that's really what matters here). As for not knowing what the results are "supposed to mean" in terms of significance of the results, etc., that's what the commentators are there to help for.
On another note, as one who ran high school track in the States, I can say that we do not use metric measurements for every event; the sprints are uniformly in meters, but the field events (i.e. long jump, shot put, triple jump, etc.) are in feet. At least that's how things were back on the east coast/NYC (that may even be the case in college track in the US, but I'm not sure).
Jumping, shot put etc. are all in feet and inches. How stupid is that? The ONLY country on earth.
Fortunately they did not convert 400m to 1/4 miles.
A 1/4 mile is 402.336 meters, so they should've said approximately a quarter mile.
Quote:
Originally Posted by prospectheightsresident
I disagree. If you're not typically into sports, the translation to feet is even more of a help, especially as an American (and, given that this is an American broadcaster, that's really what matters here). As for not knowing what the results are "supposed to mean" in terms of significance of the results, etc., that's what the commentators are there to help for.
On another note, as one who ran high school track in the States, I can say that we do not use metric measurements for every event; the sprints are uniformly in meters, but the field events (i.e. long jump, shot put, triple jump, etc.) are in feet. At least that's how things were back on the east coast/NYC (that may even be the case in college track in the US, but I'm not sure).
We are slowly getting more comfortable with the metric system since distances in swimming and track are now in meters, and most items sold in stores have both measurements. When I was in high school, we still ran the 440, 880 and the mile. It is harder for Americans to deal with track distance measurements in the metric system. After being around track and field events since the late 1960s, I have a frame of reference for all the throwing and jumping events. I know that someone jumping over 7 feet is pretty good. But when I hear that the winning jump in the high jump was 2.29 meters, it doesn't mean much. I have to do a conversion, which is not easy to convert to feet and inches in your head to get a precise number. 7.51 feet is not the same as knowing the winning jump was 7'6".
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