AN APPROXIMATE LAW OF FATIGUE IN THE SPEEDS 



OF RACING ANIMALS. 



By a. E. Kexnelly. 



Received July G, 1906. 



Races between swift men, or between swift horses, have been of the 

 greatest interest in all times. Olympia and Epsom Downs are known 

 to fame by the races they have witnessed. Olympian races, recently 

 revived, are of international interest. 



It is strange that, judging from encyclopedias and text-books on 

 athletics, there is very little published information concerning the 

 speeds at which races are run. Apparently, all that is known by 

 our books on these matters is that short races are run at higher speeds 

 than long races. Every one knows that a contestant in a mile or kilo- 

 meter race runs at a lower speed than a sprinter in a lOU-yard or 

 100- meter dash. 



There has, however, been accumulated during the last century, and 

 particularly during the last fifty years, a considerable fund of publicly 

 recorded information concerning the record times in which races of 

 stated length have been run. Athletes are, for example, generally 

 familiar with the records of the 100-yard and the mile runs ; namely, 

 9.6 and 252.75 seconds, respectively. A reduction of either of these 

 record times by even one per cent would be a matter of world-wide 

 importance and the hero of the new record would be famous among 

 the inhabitants of the temperate zones. 



This paper presents the data which the writer has been able to 

 collect upon record speeds in various kinds of racing, as well as the 

 conclusions that seem to be warranted thereby. It will be seen that 

 the records align themselves closely to a simple mathematical relation. 

 It is not pretended that the records conform rigorously to this mathe- 

 matical relation. Such a condition could hardly be expected from the 

 performances of different animals at different times and in different 

 parts of the world. It is claimed, however, that any one who will 

 analyze the records presented will be able to satisfy himself that they 

 approximate to the said mathematical relation for practical purposes 

 within satisfactorily small limits of deviation. 



We may commence with horse-racing records. 



