another clear example of the superiority of the metric system ;-)

well, a mile is 1.62 kms. go from there.

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1609.344m actually.

750, so that's 15 lenghts, (i dont think its a true 1/2 mile, but I think its the closest, the mile is 1500 but I think that is not exact) No worries man, swimmin is the only thing I got in the tri, good luck and have fun!!!

looks like your computing skills are as good as your converting unit skills ;-)

haha. that's funny, but true. I'm from America, but I do agree with you. I think we'd be better off with the metric system.

To the OP: 1 mile = 1.609 km
.5 mile = .8045 km = 804.5 m = 32.18 lengths in a 25m pool

geez help the guy out....32 laps is a half mile

you mean 16 right?

Yeah I always get the 1 and the 2 in .62 and 1.61 (the back and forth conversion factors accurate to 2 decimal places) mixed up, unless I actually do the 1/x calc to verify. I should know, cuz 100 km/h is 62 mph ... so forth

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No, he means 32. A lap is a length.

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a length is a length. a lap is a circuit...(didn't we have this discussion already?)

I'll attempt to end this thread now before it gets too embarrassing.

1/2 mile is pretty close to 800m.


So, 800 divided by 25(the length of the pool) is 32.

So 32 lengths, or 16 laps (as most people consider 2 lengths a lap)

Greg.

O boy, the old lap vs. length debate!

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Mike

But we all know that swimmers can't count, so....

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A half-mile (880 yards) is just over 35 length-laps of a 25 _yard_ pool, which are the most common here in the US.

I lose track of laps, but do okay counting 100's. I want to check my (slow) pace on 100's anyway, so I would swim a half mile as 9 100's.

I agree. In fact, I am training in metric this year. I run/ride a kilometer so much quicker than a mile . Moreover, my overall distances per week are much more impressive when recorded using the metric system.

It's Halloween. So it's kind of fitting to revisit one of the longest-running zombie equine topics in swimming.

LOL!

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Is that with or without a speedsuit?

Hey Hey- I told you guys the day would come that I could help out. That is plain and simply 32 touches of wall for our purposes. Think about it this way- we always ran on 440 yard tracks...never mind man, I am starting to get a little bit like these analyticals. Touch each wall 32 times and you are about 1/2 mile (800 yards).

Have a good night- Joe

Only could a question like this turn into a debate on ST....gotta love this place.

"you mean 16 right?"

What if it is a 50 m pool? How many laps then?

Sometimes, they change the lanes so they go the short way across the pool (25 yds). Am I swimming widths instead of lengths then?

Oh lord here we go again. One length is a lap, no two lengths is a lap. What if it's long course? She asked about short course so long course doesn't matter. I didn't read the replies but I bet I just summed them up :-)

Half a mile would be 825 yds, right ;-) I don't know how many laps that is, that's why there are lap cards. when you're done it's ORANGE!!!

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It depends on your altitude. At sea level is it 32 lengths, but at 5000 feet with the resultant change in air pressure and boiling point of the water, it is 30 lengths.

Exactly right, keep going till they tell you to stop.

I figure that if on the track, you run 2 laps of a 400m track to do 800m, then in a 25m pool you swim 2 laps to do 50m.

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Wouldn't 32 touches of EACH wall be 1600m?

I think of a lap as two lengths. If you are in a scm or scy pool then a lap is a 50. If you're swimming long course it's a 100.

Before a 500 free the official says, "swimmers will complete 20 lengths of the pool. This is a gun lap event." And they fire that gun (or ring a bell, whatever) when you're turning with 50 to go - so a 50 is a lap.

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A length is obviously a lap, because you go from one side to the other, and everyone knows they start the final lap in nascar when they get halfway through the lap, uhh I mean circle. Or something.

"...length-laps..."

now there's an ingenious term to get them all thinking along the right track.

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"...length-laps..."

now there's an ingenious term to get them all thinking along the right track.



The good thing is that it doesn't matter, because any swimmer knows to count 50s rather than "laps." Of course they are equal ;)

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disclaimer: PhD not MD

Karl, Karl, Karl........

Public school, right?

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"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

You might want to double-check your pool. Very few pools in the U.S. are 25 meters. We have 50 meter pools and 25 yard pools (often 25yd widths to a 50m olympic size pool).

And, rather than trust the math skills of the idiots, er experts, here, here's a distance conversion calculator that might help.

http://www.onlineconversion.com/length_common.htm

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Though if you look at the swimming rule books, there will never be the use of the phrase gun lap because of the lack of consensus on the phrase lap. And there is no specified script for reminding swimmers it is a gun lap event, unlike the script for the start.

When I used to ref, it was always "Lead swimmer will get the gun with five plus fifty yards to go."

i do beleive this question is right up there with the epic question like: ''how to make flat coke?'' WOW.... i m speechless..... how hard is it to make the maths from 25m pool to a 800m distance (half mile)

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Come on now, Jonnyo. Not everyone possesses your supreme intellect.

;-)

Jodi

Is it true that since there is more water in the deep end, it's denser & thus making it harder to swim?

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Steve Q

Yes. This is why many of us are also slower in open water.

;-)

Jodi

Nah, because its denser in the deep end, you float higher, which reduces frontal surface area, so you're faster.

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However, there is no lap or length option. Pretty useless calculator :)

Fred.

so in other word when you run a lap: you actually come back to the point where you started. However when you swim a lap, you stop at the other end?

Fred.

Nothing to do with finishing where you started. Technically, no one actually swims laps in a pool, as a true lap would be around the perimeter of the pool. Open water swims are laps, as they go around something (buoys). But since we say that people can do laps of a pool, then lets deal with it.

Lets establish the universal truth.
Distance travelled = # of laps X measurement of the arena. (where arena could be a track, pool, or course)

We refer to a standard velodrome or athletics track by the distance of the circumference along the inside line (usually 250, 333.3, or 400m). We refer to a pool by the distance from 1 end to the other (it's length). If you refer to a lap as two lengths, then the universal truth is violated.

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Only if you are an "elite swimmer." Sometime in the 50s or 60s they lost the ability to count and decided to try to define one circuit (lap) as 2 laps, because it was too complicated a concept to speak of strange things like "lengths." The rest of the world still understands that a lap is going out and back, or making one full circuit of a course, etc. You can tell the "elite" because they immediately turn up their nose at anyone so plebian as to mention the evil word "length."

The one pool that really bugged me around here was 50m length-wise, but had a stepped wall the other way. Part of it was 25m and part was 25y. I always went for the 25m section because it was a bit longer (less turns) but sometimes they'd clear that end for a polo game in the middle of my swim. So I'd have to slide over to the 25yd section. Try and calculate 37 x 50m x 1.0936 to convert to yards in your head while swimming...usually I just added 10% and SWAG'd subtracting 1 lap to try to get close. Ugh!

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i do beleive this question is right up there with the epic question like: ''how to make flat coke?'' WOW.... i m speechless..... how hard is it to make the maths from 25m pool to a 800m distance (half mile)


800m isn't half a mile, it's 750m! swimmers are lazy, our miles are shorter :D

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

This thread is awesome! It never ceases to amaze me how an utterly simple question can devolve into absolute farce on Slowtwitch.

With 95% of the worlds population living in countries that have officially adopted the metric system, and the only 3 holdouts being Liberia, Myanmar and the United States, perhaps we can safely pretend that the mile no longer exists :)