• Depth: 2.0 metres minimum,
• Width: 25.0 metres,
• Length: 50.0 metres (or 25.0 metres if it is a short course),
• 8 2.5 metre lanes with a 2.5 metre space outside lanes 1 and 8; each lane is separated by a rope (lane rope).

Waves

There are various types of waves. Sound and light are two types. Different types of waves move matter in distinct ways. To reduce the water waves in your fast swimming pool design, it is important to understand exactly how water waves move. Knowing how these waves are created and how they behave will help you reduce or stop them.

Toss a small stone into a body of water. Waves are formed from the point the stone hit the water. The waves form a circular pattern around this entry point and spread further and further apart. There is a single wave pattern. When you look at these waves you can see the crests (high points) and troughs (low points). Only a few crests and troughs are created.

Drop two or three stones at the same time into the water. Now you have more waves and these waves interact with one another.

Imagine eight lanes of Olympic swimmers! Each swimmer's motion generates a series of waves. These waves can move across the lanes and interact with one another and against the athletes in different directions, making it more difficult to swim and slowing down the athlete's times. Have you ever had to walk into the wind? It's more difficult than on a calm day. Similarly, swimming into waves is more difficult than swimming in calm water.

Amplitude

The amplitude of a wave is the difference in height between its crest and trough. The greater the amplitude (height) the stronger and more intense the wave is. An athlete has more difficulty swimming through larger (higher amplitude) waves than smaller (lower amplitude) waves.

Reflection

When a wave stikes a surface or moves through an area where the medium's properties change, the wave will either change direction or reflect back.

In a swimming pool, waves which strike the sides or bottom of the pool reflect back. The reflected waves and original set of waves can pass through one another.

This image shows waves reaching a lake shore. Notice that there is almost no reflection of the waves.

Diffuse Reflection

A wave may strike a body that is very rough and irregular. As the wave strikes one portion of the rough, irregular object it may reflect in one direction; as it strikes another portion of this surface it will be reflected in a different direction. The wave can be reflected in many directions at the same time. In some instances, the reflection is so small that the wave is 'diffused' (the effects are minimal).

The Athlete

As a designer you must understand how the athlete utilises the pool. How does the swimmer move into and through the water in a competitive event?

Typically, the athlete dives into the pool at one end (the start) and swims toward the opposite (turning end) of the pool. They will turn at the far (turning) end and swim back to the starting point.

As the swimmer dives into the pool circular-type waves are created at the water's surface. As the swimmer moves deeper into the water and disturbs the water below the surface, waves are created underneath the surface of the water.

As the swimmer comes back to the surface, and begins to swim, a series of triangular waves are formed. These waves look similar to the trail behind a motor boat or a duck. The trailing edges (the end) of these waves can strike the lane lines.

The swimmer approaches the turning end of the pool. As they touch the wall they will turn and swim back to the starting point. When they turn they will create waves in the opposing direction - headed for the starting point. These two sets of waves (the waves approaching the turning end and the waves leaving the turning end) will collide and pass through one another. The waves approaching the turning end of pool can also be reflected back if these waves strike the wall. This is a critical area in pool design. Early footage of competitive swimmers (before modern pool design innovations) show swimmers trying to swim through choppy waves in the turn.

Have you ever watched a swimming competition where one athlete is significantly ahead of the others? This athlete makes the turn long before the swimmers in the other lanes. If the lane ropes do not stop waves from crossing lanes, waves from other lanes can interfere with the swimmers slowing them down.

Photo of the 1996 Olympics (courtesy of www.kiefer.com)

The lane ropes have stopped waves from crossing lanes.

As a designer you must consider all the areas discussed, and anticipate problems.

Pool Design Guidelines

Your swimming pool should be a scale model of an Olympic swimming pool. The ratios of depth to length to width are:

2 : 50 : 25

or

2 : 25 : 25

for a short course pool.

You must include lane ropes. Your pool can be deeper at one end of a lane than the other. You may use any material you like for your swimming pool model.

The pool designs will be evaluated as follows:
Starting from the deepest end of the pool model, an action figure will be dropped and towed in both directions in each of 2 lanes. The test will be repeated twice and the scores arranged.

The weighting for scores is:

40% pool wall reflection:

The pool model with the smallest wall wave reflection should be given the highest score in this category.

20% lane lines (ropes):

The model with the fewest waves created by lane lines should be given the highest score in this category.

20% depth:

The pool with the lowest depth and fewest waves should be given the highest score in this category.

20% physical scale:

The model with the closest appearance and scale to an Olympic swimming pool should be given the highest score in this category.

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