You are confusing absolute accuracy and required precision. No one needs to care about exactly how many meters or yards to run a kilometer or mile on a track. It’s about how many laps. If you are running a mile on a 200 yard track you know you will run 9 laps. And with only very minor exceptions, outdoor tracks in the US are 440 yards or 1/4 mile. So you know you will run 4 laps to get a mile. Or any even fraction of a mile. So there is no need to even know how long the track is and even less thinking about how far to run than you do.
And if you are into cross country running, the odds are great these days you are wearing a smart watch that will tell you when you’ve run that mile or kilometer.
First you need to know there are 1760 yards in a mile which isn’t common. Next you need to divide 1760 by 200. If you ask a child, they aren’t going to know to round up to 1800 and say 9 as an estimate.
@bluewing oh yeah I’m sure not anyone in the US knows how many miles they run when they run on a track, and I’m sure they just count the laps. I would do the same if I had grown up in a place that uses yards and miles 😁
Nope, just people using the appropriate common sense units to measure what they are doing! Besides, less counting is more better if the state of education is any indication of the future…
You are confusing absolute accuracy and required precision. No one needs to care about exactly how many meters or yards to run a kilometer or mile on a track. It’s about how many laps. If you are running a mile on a 200 yard track you know you will run 9 laps. And with only very minor exceptions, outdoor tracks in the US are 440 yards or 1/4 mile. So you know you will run 4 laps to get a mile. Or any even fraction of a mile. So there is no need to even know how long the track is and even less thinking about how far to run than you do.
And if you are into cross country running, the odds are great these days you are wearing a smart watch that will tell you when you’ve run that mile or kilometer.
You only know that after using your calculator.
No, you just do it in your head, provided you can do your arithmetic as well as a child can.
First you need to know there are 1760 yards in a mile which isn’t common. Next you need to divide 1760 by 200. If you ask a child, they aren’t going to know to round up to 1800 and say 9 as an estimate.
Telling on yourself
@bluewing oh yeah I’m sure not anyone in the US knows how many miles they run when they run on a track, and I’m sure they just count the laps. I would do the same if I had grown up in a place that uses yards and miles 😁
the standard length of a track is a quarter mile, pretty sure that’s common knowledge
Nope, just people using the appropriate common sense units to measure what they are doing! Besides, less counting is more better if the state of education is any indication of the future…