Back to the Start

The difference in finish times was between Green and Brokenburr is 0.07 second (7/10ths).

However, the disparity in the reaction times of Maurice Greene and Kenneth Brokenburr is only 0.006 (6/1000ths) of a second -  with Brokenburr this fraction of a second slower. Dennis Mitchell was 0.002 (2/1000ths) of a second slower than Brokenburr.

All three athletes' initial reaction times were within 0.008 seconds. Below we will use the ReacTime™ software to focus on lanes 3 - Mitchell, 5 - Greene, and 8 - Brokenburr.

The first question you may ask is this:

Could Brokenburr improve his reaction time enough to finish in front of Greene? Remember that he finished 0.07 seconds behind Greene.

The answer is no.

An improvement of 0.07 seconds (7/100ths) would give Brokenburr a reaction time of 0.085 - which is a false start.

Below are detailed graphs for each athlete.

Dennis Mitchell

Maurice Greene

Kenneth Brokenburr

As we already noted, the reaction times were all very close - within 8/1000ths of a second - a few inches in the course of the race.  However you will notice that the graphs of the ReacTime™ data output differ radically in shape.

What do we see if we look at the graphs closer?