What is the distance in lane 6 in a running track?

Answer 1

400m every lane is the same distance.

Yes, the above is true in a 400 metre race!

However, if you are training or running for fitness or pleasure on a track, signs often tell you not to run on the inside lane, and you may wonder like I have what the distance is around various lanes.

See the answer in this website to: "What is the length of each lane on a running track?"

The line around which you run in lane #6 is approximately 440 meters long (439.898 meters long, to be mathematically more precise).

Answer 2

If you remain in a lane when you run on an oval track where the inside lane is 400 meters and each lane is 48 inches wide and the line between lanes is two inches wide the following will apply:

Each lane width, including a lane marking, will be 50 inches or 1.27 meters. Note that different standards may apply. Some calculate lane widths as 1.25 metres, or 1.22 metres (apparently the Olympic lane width) which would result in slightly shorter lanes.

• Lane 1 (inside lane) is 400 meters long on the inside of the lane.
• Lane 2 is 407.98 metres long on the inside of the lane.
• Lane 3 is 415.959 metres long . . . .
• Lane 4 is 423.939 metres long . . . .
• Lane 5 is 431.918 metres long . . . .
• Lane 6 is 439.898 metres long . . . .
• Lane 7 would be 447.878 metres long . . . .
• Lane 8 would be 455.857 metres long . . . .

That is a difference of about 7.98 meters or 8 m between the length of each lane.

Runners on a track run two halves of a circle plus the two straight lines that connect the two halves. The straight stretches are identical for each lane, but the circle is bigger in each successive lane. Think of a single lane width as the radius of the circle. The diameter of that circle equals two lane widths. Pi times that diameter equals the amount by which each lane exceeds the lane just inside it.

The formula for Circumference is pi (~3.14) times diameter (C = pi x d). So a lane's width times 2 is the diameter of that circle. The diameter times pi equals the distance by which each runner would exceed the distance of the runner on the next inside lane on a complete circuit of the track without staggered start postions. Of course that is why start positions are staggered in each lane.

1.27 m x 2 equals 2.54 m.

2.54 m x pi equals ~7.979645 metres. So each lane is nearly 8 m longer than its adjacent inside lane.

Note: I diagramed the above with Rhino3D drawing software (www.rhino3d.com) using the following method:

A circle was drawn with a radius of 34.5 metres. This makes a circle with a circumference of 216.77 metres. The circle was split in half, moved apart, and two lines 91.615 metres long were placed between the ends. The total length of the resulting line is 400 metres.

The Rhino 3D software was used to offset each line by 1.27 m. Finally, the software was used to analyze the length of each line.

The Math was then checked using Microsoft Excel with the formulas as described above.

If measurements were made on an actual track the results may differ. Check with the track owner about which standards were followed. Then again, who knows how accurately the builders of that track followed specifications?

Answer 3

how wide is a 6 lane track