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Faster than the blink of an eye
In today’s digital era, Olympic timekeepers use a wide range of high-tech devices including photoelectric sensors, high-speed digital cameras, electronic touch pads, radio transmitters, infrared beams and laser beams to record athletes’ performances. While many modern tools can resolve time to three decimal places — 1/1000th of a second or roughly 300 times faster than the blink of an eye — for most Olympic events, the results are not considered meaningful beyond two decimal places.














