Stat221 Experiment Report

Yunfeng Shi

Student ID#: 1365443

STAT 221 Section AD

Oval Track Racing Experiment Report

Introduction

Is the inner/outer lane make a difference in terms of lap time in running?

Does starting lane matter in oval track racing? My assumption is inner/outer lane does not make a difference in terms of lap time in running. Similarly, there is also highly similar research topic on this area conducted by Nils lid Hjort whose research shows the difference between inner/outer start. The result of his research changes the rule for the later Olympic 500 meter sprint event.

The purpose of Hjort’s study is to investigate the potential difference between the last lane and last outer lane in speed skating. As for our research, we focus on study the relationship the lap time for inner lane run and outer lane run. Our research topic is highly similar. The only difference between Hjort’s and my research question is Hjort’s research is under the background of Olympic skating, while ours’ is about college student running. As for the result of our experiment, inner/outer lane does not make enough impact in terms of lap time in running. The conclusion confirms my hypothesis.

Study Design

The subject of Hjort’s experiment is a skater in the eleven Sprint World Championships for Men Trondheim 1984–Calgary 1994. The parameter interest of the experiment is the average time difference inner and outer lane in skating. The treatment group is the start in the inner lane and the control group is the start in the outer lane. The response variable is the average difference between a result reached by the average top sprinter in last inner track versus last outer track, the variable so called d in Hjort’s research. The covariate in this research could be the different conditions and weather condition of ice in different days, the passing time in the first 100m and the unique level for different skaters. The inner and outer lane is randomly selected. The confounding variable for this...