# What's the theoretical limit on a 100m world record? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2008, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-theoretical-limit-on-a-100m-world-record/460918 "2008-08-22T12:30:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-theoretical-limit-on-a-100m-world-record/460918/21 "2008-08-22T20:01:43Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] So what’s their frictional coefficient? [/QUOTE] We don’t really talk about coefficients of friction when the spikes actually penetrate the surface, since the main force resisting movement isn’t friction, it’s the bodies physically resisting each other. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-theoretical-limit-on-a-100m-world-record/460918/22 "2008-08-22T20:54:47Z")
\>I seem to recall it as a foot per femto-second It’s a foot per nanosecond. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-theoretical-limit-on-a-100m-world-record/460918/23 "2008-08-22T22:37:23Z")
I would think there is a statistical approach to this. I did some searching but have been unable to find a history of world records for this event. But if you found them and plotted them in a time series you could probably predict an asymptote. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-theoretical-limit-on-a-100m-world-record/460918/24 "2008-08-22T23:05:15Z")
There’s a graph in the Wikipedia article [Men's 100 metres world record progression - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_record_progression_100_metres_men) . Noit sure if there are enough points there to find a precise trend. Perhaps if we had finishing times for all top class 100m events. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-theoretical-limit-on-a-100m-world-record/460918/25 "2008-08-22T23:09:58Z")
[QUOTE=Quercus] Nano-, micro-, what’s three orders of magnitude between friends? [/QUOTE] I know, I know. That’s why I didn’t say, “Neener, neener, ya schlub.” I checked it three ways from Sunday myself and – notice – I still said 299.7+, not 29.97+ I probably wouldn’t have noticed myself had it not been for that film. It was a great visual presentation. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2008, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-theoretical-limit-on-a-100m-world-record/460918/26 "2008-08-23T00:55:45Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] There’s a graph in the Wikipedia article [Men's 100 metres world record progression - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_record_progression_100_metres_men) . Noit sure if there are enough points there to find a precise trend. Perhaps if we had finishing times for all top class 100m events. [/QUOTE] Hey, that’s a pretty good find. Based on this data I would have predicted a limit of between 9.7 and 9.8 but the last couple years have taken a steep dive down. I know how to do linear and quadratic regression but I don’t know how to solve for an asymptotic trend. By eyeball it looks like there’s no clear limit. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2008, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-theoretical-limit-on-a-100m-world-record/460918/27 "2008-08-23T05:38:26Z")
[QUOTE=CookingWithGas] Hey, that’s a pretty good find. Based on this data I would have predicted a limit of between 9.7 and 9.8 but the last couple years have taken a steep dive down. I know how to do linear and quadratic regression but I don’t know how to solve for an asymptotic trend. By eyeball it looks like there’s no clear limit. [/QUOTE] Logarithms to get a straight line? I have always been fascinated by curve-fitting, maybe I’ll take a shot at this. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2008, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-theoretical-limit-on-a-100m-world-record/460918/28 "2008-08-23T17:09:44Z")
[QUOTE=Oslo Ostragoth] Logarithms to get a straight line? I have always been fascinated by curve-fitting, maybe I’ll take a shot at this. [/QUOTE] I’m not sure that we can determine anything from previous records. Although a correlation is likely, future advances in sports science are pretty unpredictable. I strongly suspect that there will be some sort of advance in nutrition, muscle development or basic human physiology (gene therapy to promote fast-twitch muscle fiber growth, or something like that) which will render all this academic. Right now, sprinters are limited by the fact that adding muscle adds weight, meaning that adding a pound of muscle mass may not actually improve one’s time at all. Otherwise, sprinters would have gigantic grotesque leg development like bodybuilders, rather than more-or-less normal looking legs. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-theoretical-limit-on-a-100m-world-record/460918/29 "2008-08-23T20:01:59Z")
All I know is that it has been scientifically proven that human beings can never run a mile under four minutes. I know, I know! That is an urban legend made up after Roger Bannister did the 4 minute mile, but I couldn’t resist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-theoretical-limit-on-a-100m-world-record/460918.md?page=1)