Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2020 July 9

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July 9

Why one side of the accordion has one type of keys and another has another type keys?

Why one side of the accordeon has one type of keys and another has another type keys?

If having this many keys is a possible thing, why not have the extreme amount of small round keys at both sides of accordeon?2804:7F2:688:3746:286A:EDA:EACA:8876 (talk) 00:13, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

Have you checked the accordion article? The answer is probably in there somewhere, (but not obvious). 107.15.157.44 (talk) 05:43, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

Quoted from the article itself: "One side (usually the right-hand manual) is normally used for playing the melody and the the other side (usually left-hand manual) for playing the accompaniment".

Also the piano keys are but one of many styles of accordion structure. Accordions where both body halves have button keys definitely do exist, but those tend to be either specific to certain cultures or expensive and labouring to make as that requires both body halves to be big and heavy enough to house all the numerous valves and pallet mechanics. Piano keys are simply more familiar/conventional. "Accordions have many configurations and types. What may be easy to do with one type of accordion could be technically challenging or impossible with another, and proficiency with one layout may not translate to another." --72.234.12.37 (talk) 08:54, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

I would also point out that while it is possible to play a tune on the piano keys, the button side is laid out quite differently and is only for playing chords, so the major chords lie along one row, minor and seventh chords along other rows etc. and they are arranged according to harmonics i.e. C, G, D, A, E, etc.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 13:34, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

And should you have the urge to teach yourself, Wikibooks:Accordion/Left hand tells you how. Alansplodge (talk) 17:39, 11 July 2020 (UTC)

So, they dont play notes, but chords, this means I was wrong when I said "if having this many keys is a possible thing", its not, and that explain why the other side dont have all those extreme amount of small button keys, thanks for the infomation everyone. 2804:7F2:688:3746:8063:F5A2:285A:FCEC (talk) 23:22, 11 July 2020 (UTC)

As that Wikibooks page shows, "only for playing chords" is a bit of an overstatement. The first two rows of the left-hand buttons (those furthest from the "outside" of the accordion) do play individual notes, and as a former accordion lesson taker, I can say that they are often used to play a bass melody in counterpoint to what the right hand is playing. Deor (talk) 15:03, 12 July 2020 (UTC)

Metric measurements at the Olympic Games - When?

The section above on the Marathon distance, with lots of Americans describing it in miles and yards, got me thinking. I know that all Olympic Games measurements today are metric, and as far as I can remember, have been for at least as far back as 1956 when I was lucky enough to first attend. But when did this start? The modern Olympics were created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a Frenchman, who would have naturally been inclined to use metric measurements right from the beginning. Is this what happened? Have all Olympic measurements been metric all along? HiLo48 (talk) 00:16, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

Most events have been measured in metric since the beginning in 1896, with a few exceptions such as the 5 mile race in 1908. Nanonic (talk) 01:41, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

There were a few sports that continued to use non-metric. The International Football Association Board only began to prefer metric in the Laws of the Game in the late 1990s and the onfield markings are still based on imperial measurements. Field hockey also converted about the same time. Hack (talk) 04:44, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

Yes, I would have assumed that the International Olympic Committee would have decided the measurement conventions on a sport-by-sport basis according to each respective international sports federation. Zzyzx11 (talk) 11:53, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

Note that the modern athletics track originated in Britain, one lap equalling exactly a quarter of a mile, or 440 yards or two furlongs. [1] This rather neatly converts to 402.3 metres, so not much rounding required.

Olympics aside, our article about the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Jamaica shows that track races were still measured in yards, although metres had taken over by the time of the 1970 British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.

Also, the mile run is "the only imperial distance for which the IAAF records an official world record. Although the mile does not feature at any major championship competition, the Wanamaker Mile, Dream Mile, and Bowerman Mile races are among the foremost annual middle-distance races indoors and outdoors, respectively." Alansplodge (talk) 14:22, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

A final thought, the 1908 Summer Olympics were held at the White City Stadium in London where the running track was one third of a mile (586 yards and 2 feet), which must have made metric conversion more interesting. Alansplodge (talk) 15:05, 9 July 2020 (UTC)