In or Out? Test Your Line-Judge Skills

The quarterfinals of the U.S. Open start today, and if you don’t manage to get out to Flushing Meadows, the Wall Street Journal has a cool way to experience part of the action — that moment a line judge rules a ball in or out.

The game plays video clips of a ball hitting the court at full speed, from the perspective of one of the judges. You get to call it in or out. It’s a good demonstration of how super-slim margins and human reflexes are a big part of top-tier sports.

Another great example of that is “Fractions of a Second: An Olympic Musical,” done by Amanda Cox at the New York Times for the 2010 Olympics. It uses visuals and sound to convey how oh-so-very close the top athletes got to gold.

Look at women’s 1,000-meter speedskating, where Annette Gerritson of the Netherlands missed Gold by 0.02 seconds — a gap that’s almost inaudible.

Folks at the Times are particularly good at finding ways to show close margins. The video "One Race, Every Medalist Ever" is a favorite of WNYC's Data News Team. It nicely shows the relative finishing times for every Olympic medal winner in the men's 100-meter sprint, and how the difference between bronze in 1896 and Usain Bolt's gold in 2012 is only about 3 seconds.