Some comments on statistical approach....not being a statistician nor ever playing one on TV.... This would be an interesting endeavor (and I'd love to see the results and I'd certainly be willing to participate) but it strikes me that the amount of variation due to 'other' sources (conditions, boat/hull design, stroke mechanics, paddler skill/condition/mood that day, etc) would likely swamp out any detectable variation due to paddle. No good way to control those other sources of variation - and they are going to be HUGE relative to the paddle variation (for instance, I'm sure there have been lengthy exchanges about hull designs in the past and my guess is hull design would affect these times much more than paddle). I suppose it is a bit like testing tires by having them run on 100 different cars....with no control on make...1 pickup, 1 Porsche, 1 Chevy Vega, 1 Ford Pinto, 1 Ferrari, etc I've seen guys that could likely blow my doors off paddling with only a Q-tip...wouldn't matter what paddle you gave me...unless it had "Honda 7.5 hp" stamped on the side.... ;o) Just my 2 cents - FWIW, K PS: Just thinking out loud but maybe one way to somewhat capture this would be to have each paddler use some standard, widely available paddle, then also do this with their own, and use a difference in times as some measure - and run a couple of trials each - two days, each day do one run with standard paddle first, then vice versa. Not sure this would adequately capture any/enough of that 'other' variation - but it might. Of course, you have to find a standard paddle that everyone can get their hands on....probably no small task. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Jun 12 2003 - 05:42:08 PDT
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