[fouronnes3]

Fun fact: swimming records times are rounded to the hundreds of a second, because recording more precise times would require too high of a tolerance on the length of the pool at construction. I wonder if it's the same for some other sports!

[LeoPanthera]

In thousands of a second, you could gain an advantage by growing long fingernails to touch the wall fractionally earlier.

[euroderf]

At the possible cost of increased water resistance, and/versus possible increase in power of stroke.

Sounds like fertile ground for a Ph.D thesis that sparks a nail craze.

[matt-attack]

Wouldn’t you want longer fingernails anyway for a bigger paddle effect?

[pests]

Can't they build a false wall to force an exact length?

[whycome]

Do they verify the track lengths for sprints?

[votepaunchy]

> rounded to the hundreds of a second

As below, this is why the metric system is superior. Centiseconds vs hectoseconds makes it much easier to see the mistake.

[stavros]

I've never seen the "hecto-" prefix before, but I immediately have an undying hatred for it. "Hecto-" means "a sixth of", "hecato-" means "a hundredth of". Sucks that people chose the wrong spelling because they didn't realize it changes the meaning so much.

[throwaway99113]

It is sometimes used in grocery stores in Norway when you need to ask for a quantity of something that is not pre-packed.

"I'd like 2 hecto ham" means 2 hectograms (200g, or 0.2kg)

It may sound strange if you are not used to it. I also have a feeling that the younger generations prefer just measuring in grams when it is less than a kg. Let's blame the school system ;-)

We also sometimes measure area as "dekar" (1000 sq m) and "hektar" (10000 sq m)

[histories]

It's surprisingly (well) similar in italian, where "etto" is 100 g and "ettaro" is 10000 m².

[ianburrell]

The dictionary says that "hecto" is hundreth "from French hecto-, from Ancient Greek ἑκατόν (hekatón, “hundred”)." It was sometimes spelled "hecato" in 19th century.

In English, "hexa" is the prefix for sixth from the Greek "hex".

[stavros]

Certainly; I'm merely suggesting English is wrong.

[Lukas_Skywalker]

The hecto- prefix isn't commonly used for durations, but it's often used for barometric pressures as in hPa (Hectopascal), or areas such as ha (Hectare), at least in Europe. And it is an official SI prefix.

[stavros]

This is all true, but I still hate it for being wrong :/