Why Are Some World Records So Hard to Break?

Why are some athletes able to crush world records when other records remain unbroken for years? The answer has to do with the kind of materials used in the competition and the type of athletic event one is competing in. Hank Green explains in this episode of SciShow. This episode is inspired and brought to you by the upcoming Focus Features film, RACE, which releases nationwide on February 19th. Race Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3ZF5b0zu00 Hosted by: Hank Green ---------- Dooblydoo thanks go to the following Patreon supporters -- we couldn't make SciShow without them! Shout out to Justin Ove, Justin Lentz, David Campos, Chris Peters, Philippe von Bergen, Fatima Iqbal, John Murrin, Linnea Boyev, and Kathy & Tim Philip. ---------- Like SciShow? Want to help support us, and also get things to put on your walls, cover your torso and hold your liquids? Check out our awesome products over at DFTBA Records: http://dftba.com/scishow Or help support us by becoming our patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow Sources: http://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/ultimate-100-meter-time-927-seconds http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2011/nov/15/usain-bolt-sprinters-100m https://www.ted.com/talks/david_epstein_are_athletes_really_getting_faster_better_stronger/transcript http://www.gizmag.com/usain-bolt-fastest-man-physics-analysis/28457/ https://harvardsportsanalysis.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/swimming-on-steroids-the-suits-that-brought-down-records/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-speedo-created-swimsuit/ https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2008/ch_4.html http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2008/issue47-2/ http://illumin.usc.edu/143/soaring-to-new-heights-the-evolution-of-pole-vaulting-and-pole-materials/ https://www.brunel.ac.uk/~spstnpl/Publications/Ch12Athletics(Linthorne).pdf http://trackandfield.about.com/od/worldrecords/fl/Menrsquos-Pole-Vault-World-Records.htm Images: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens#/media/File:Jesse_Owens3.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZR_Racer#/media/File:Phelps4x100.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZR_Racer#/media/File:Unveiling_of_LZR_Racer_in_NYC_2008-02-13.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_vault#/media/File:Pole_vaulting_LOC_det.4a15081.jpg

Comments

1. Honey! Where's my super suit?!?!
2. Because world records are usually at the physical limitations?
3. I like how nerds are talking about sports(I have nothing against it tho)
4. The more modern pole vaulting poles are made of carbon fiber, probably going to make the sport a bit different over the next few years, most Olympic vaulters have grown up using fiberglass poles, the switch is surprisingly tough
5. Pole vaulters represent!
6. The difference between 10:03 and 9:58 isn't 7% it is probably closer to 0.7%.. Please go over that math.
7. That swimming thing is pretty bullshit. It's like if someone did the 100m run with a mech suit. Predictably broke all the records so they decided to ban the mech suit but let him keep the records. Good luck to anyone trying to beat it. What a joke.
8. somebody that was doing running got caught for buying blood banks and using the blood for energy but ended up getting caught and getting cancer cause​ the extra white blood cells
9. your pole vault graphics dude has some shitty form. you don't stab the pit like tour trying to kill a buffalo.
10. Ahh who? why did it end?
11. Renaud Lavillenie jumped with a baguette, this is pole vaulting tech as its finest.
12. Fosbury Flop?
13. Graphene poles might fit the bill. Seems silly to eliminate the composition of textiles. Necessity is the mother of invention.
14. cus they were hard to do in the first place. duhhhhh
15. That's why greeks were so ahead of the curve, their athletes competed naked
16. Human physique sports should be a free for all. With all technologies allowed, and most importantly with all drugs allowed. I want to see ripped as all fuck athletes holding vehicle throwing competitions and whatnot. Will also probably drive medicine to develop methods to prevent heart failure.
17. the limit of how high humans can jump using fiberglass poles.
    cool.
18. Dividing one time by another isn't really a good way of figuring out how much a runner has improved since drag is not linear with velocity. It would be more representative to calculate the power consumed and compare that.
19. The technique changes are not slight, technique in sprinting is far more important that most people think
20. Everyone once held the world record for youngest human alive.