I noticed last winter that skiing competitions are sometimes being timed down to a thousandth of a second, these days… Can anyone tell me how that is done? Where are they measuring from? Does my timing through the starting gate come into play? Or does the time start only when I go through? Do the beeps we hear on TV mean anything at all in that case? And what about at the bottom? Is my time measured from the tips of the skiis? If I lenghthen my skis by a fraction of an inch, then, when the competition is so close, will I beat them!!!
The beeping you hear is the countdown to the end of the time frame a skier has to start his race. IIRC, this is ten seconds. So he knows he has to start somewhere before the tenth beep, or his time will start running automatically. Now, when he DOES start, his timing is initiated when he slams the little bar in front of his shins aside (look for it on TV). As for the finish line, I’m not entirely sure. The measurement is probably done by an optical laser-like system. And my guess would be that they measure the skiers body at hip level or something, instead of the first or last thing that crosses the line (in most cases, the skis).