Why is the marathon distance 42 km 195 m? Detailed answer

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Why is the marathon distance 42 km 195 m? Detailed answer

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Why is the marathon distance 42 km 195 m?

For the convenience of the British Royal Family.

In the first three modern Olympics, the marathon distance was approximately 42 km (26 miles) and varied from case to case. In 1908, the Olympic Games were held in London, and the start line was specially located opposite the window of Windsor Castle, from where one half of the royal family could watch the competition. The finish line was right in front of the royal box at the White City stadium, where the second half of the royal family was waiting for the end of the marathon race. The whole distance was exactly 26 miles and 385 yards and became the standard marathon distance for all subsequent Olympics.

The history of the origin of the 26-mile race dates back to the heroic deed of a Greek warrior named Pheidippides, who allegedly ran this distance from the city of Marathon to Athens to announce the great victory of the Athenians over the Persians in 490 BC. e. According to popular legend, he managed to blurt out the news and immediately fell dead.

The story, of course, is terribly heroic, but, unfortunately, does not stand up to criticism. Few marathon runners die after running, and professional ancient Greek racers typically ran twice the distance.

This version of the origin of the marathon first appeared in the "Ethics" of the Roman historian Plutarch (-45 - 125) only 500 years later. Moreover, the author for some reason calls the runner Eucl. Plutarch clearly confuses his story with the earlier story of Pheidippides recorded by Herodotus, who was born six years after the famous battle and whose account of events is closest to what we know today.

According to Herodotus, Phidippides was a messenger sent from Athens to Sparta (246 km, or 153 miles) for reinforcements to repel the Persian advance. The Spartans were busy with another religious holiday, and Fidippidas had to run back with nothing, and the Athenians had to fight the Persians on their own. As a result, the Athenians won an unconditional victory, losing 192 people killed against 6400 Persians. But Pheidippides is not dead.

Any race over a marathon distance is called an "ultra marathon". In 1982, the "American Ultramarathon Association" organized a race along the historical Pheidippides route (agreed by a consortium of Greek historians) and in 1983 officially approved it as the International Spartathlon. The first winner was Janis Kouros, a Greek long-distance runner and modern legend.

Today, Kouros is the absolute world record holder in running for all types of distances from 200 to 1600 km. In 2005, he completely overcame the path of Pheidippides - from Athens to Sparta and back.

Author: John Lloyd, John Mitchinson

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

What is noise?

Sound is generated by mechanical vibrations. However, in order for these vibrations to become audible, they must occur in some medium: air, liquid, or solid. Through the medium, the vibration sound can reach the listener's ear. Oscillations can be correct, that is, in other words, the object creates waves in the medium that follow at strictly defined time intervals. In this case, the result is a melodic sound. However, if the vibrations are wrong, then their effect on our ears is much less pleasant.

The sound resulting from such vibrations is called noise. Sounds differ from each other in volume, pitch and timbre. The loudness of the sound depends partly on the distance of the listener's ear from the sounding object, and partly on the amplitude of the vibration of the latter.

The word amplitude means the distance that a body travels from one extreme point to another during its oscillations. The greater this distance, the louder the sound. The pitch of the sound depends on the speed or frequency of the vibrations of the body. The more vibrations an object makes in one second, the higher the sound it produces. However, two sounds that are absolutely identical in volume and pitch may differ from each other.

The musicality of a sound depends on the number and strength of the overtones present in it. If the string of a violin is made to oscillate along its entire length so that no additional vibrations occur, then the lowest tone that it can only produce will be heard. This tone is called the main tone.

However, if additional vibrations of individual parts occur on it, then additional higher notes will appear. Harmonizing with the main tone, they will create a special, violin sound. These notes, higher than the root, are called overtones. They determine the timbre of a particular sound.

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Spiders eat more meat than humans 22.03.2017

Scientists have long assumed that spiders are among the most active predators on the planet, and recently they were able to prove it. It turned out that the global population of spiders consumes up to 800 million tons of prey per year.

The order of spiders (Araneae) has more than 45 thousand species, while the average population density can be 131-152 individuals per square meter. Under the most favorable conditions, there are 1000 individuals per square meter.

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