Starting pistol
A starting pistol or starter pistol is a
Starting pistols may also include modified versions of standard pistols incapable of firing
Use in races
The sound of the gun going off serves as the signal for the athletes to begin the event. An issue with the use of starting pistols is that, since the report of the pistol is carried to the competitors at the speed of sound, which takes about 3 milliseconds to travel one metre, positions nearest the starter hear the report a few milliseconds before further positions. This issue is exaggerated in races where the runners begin in a stagger, putting a significant distance between the nearest and furthest runners. To avoid this problem, the pistol is in all major competitions wired with a microphone that transmits the sound virtually instantaneously to loudspeakers directly behind each competitor.
With security after the
Use in American and Canadian football
Officials in American and Canadian football formerly used a starting pistol to end each quarter of a game. In the NFL this was first done in 1924, to avoid confusion with the whistles and air horns used for other signals; at the time the stadium clock did not show the official game time, which was kept by the officials on the field. The stadium clock later became the official game time and the NFL discontinued the gunshot in 1994. Furthermore, upon the official end of the period, the referee will announce "That is the end of the (x period)" to the public address system.[6]
Use in the arts
Beside sporting events, starter pistols are also used in films and in TV or stage shows.[1]
Criminal use
Some pistols made to fire only blanks can be converted to fire live ammunition. Such makeshift firearms are used in crime and many are illegal to possess in certain jurisdictions.[7][8]
See also
- Incidents involving starting pistols
- 2010 Discovery, Inc. hostage crisis
- Adam Ant 2002 pub incident in Camden
- Algiers Motel incident
- David Kang
- LOT Flight 165 hijacking
- Lufthansa Flight 592
References
- ^ a b c "Blank Guns". United States: Collector's Armoury, Ltd. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
- ^ "Blank Guns". United States: Collector's Armoury, Ltd. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
- ^ Powell, Donna (22 June 2018). "The Ancient Tradition of Starter Guns". Phillips Mini Guns - Charles Mini Works, LLC.
- ^ Wizards at Omega create space-age starter's pistol
- ^ The Speed of Sound is too Slow for Olympic Athletes, The Atlantic.
- ^ Austro, Ben (September 28, 2019). "NFL100: Why did officials use a pistol to signal the end of the quarter?". www.footballzebras.com. Football Zebras. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
- ISBN 978-1-84983-051-5.
- ISBN 978-0-16-091510-9.