athletics

Variety of sport competitions held on a running track and on the adjacent field. It is the oldest form of organized sports, having been a part of the ancient Olympic Games from circa 776 BC to AD 393. Modern events include various sprint and middle- and long-distance races, relay races, hurdling, steeplechase, high jump, pole vault, long jump, triple jump, shot put, discus throw, hammer throw, javelin throw, decathlon, pentathlon, and heptathlon. Cross-country running, marathons, and speed walking, which are rarely held on a track, are usually considered adjuncts of athletics. Events are held indoors and outdoors, and records are kept separately; some events are modified or eliminated for indoor competition.

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Method of determining the age of a mineral that utilizes the damage done by the spontaneous fission of uranium-238, the most abundant isotope of uranium. The fission results in radiation damage, or fission tracks, that can be made visible by preferential leaching (removal of material by solution) of the host substance with a suitable chemical reagent; the leaching process allows the etched fission-track pits to be viewed and counted under a microscope. The amount of uranium present can be determined by irradiation that produces thermal fission of uranium-235, which produces another population of tracks, related to the uranium concentration of the mineral. Thus, the ratio of naturally produced, spontaneous fission tracks to induced fission tracks is a measure of the age of the sample. See also dating.

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In nature:

• Animal tracks, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walk across
• Trackway, an ancient route of travel or track used by animals

In sport:

• Track cycling, a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially-built banked tracks
• Athletics (track and field), a collection of sports events that involve running, throwing and jumping; also known as "track and field", "track and field athletics", or just "track" in the US
• Race track, purpose-built facility for the conducting of races
• A synonym for cricket pitch, central strip of a cricket field between the wickets

In transport and navigation:

• Such as the automobile track, a general vehicle track is the distance at which both the front and rear wheels are disposed, in a road vehicle.
• Rail tracks, used on railways, which, together with railroad switches, guide trains without the need for steering
• Wheel gauge of a railway vehicle, or rail gauge
• Navigational track, the path a vessel or aircraft plots over ground
• An ocean track is used in flight planning for routing aircraft across an ocean, or ground track for overland navigation. It is the path of the aircraft as determined combination of heading, slip, and wind effects.
• Track (sat nav): an ordered set of points along a path in satellite navigation devices
• Continuous track, a belt providing motive traction for a tank or bulldozer
• Track (Trail), an informal road or pathway

In electronics and computing:

• Copper trace or Signal trace line on a printed circuit board
• Circular segment of a hard disk or other storage media (see also cylinder-head-sector)
• Commonly mistaken verbally, Trac is a web-based project management and bug-tracking tool.
• Track+, project-management and bug tracking tool

In building:

• Track (lighting), a physical fixture used in track lighting

In audio-visual topics:

• Soundtrack, the recorded sound accompanying a visual medium such as a motion picture, television show, or video game
• Track (CD), consecutive set of sectors on the disc containing a block of data
• Control track, a sychronisation device used in video recording

In music:

• Track (song), an alternate name for a song or other distinct section of a sound recording
• One section of a multitrack recording
• Track Records, a record label founded in 1966 in London, England
• Tracks (album), 1998 four-disc box set by Bruce Springsteen
• Tracks (Collin Raye album), 2000 album by Collin Raye
• Track, one layer of music

In films:

• Tracks (Transformers), an Autobot in the Transformers series
• Tracks (1976 film), film written and directed by Henry Jaglom, starring Dennis Hopper

In printed media:

• Tracks (novel), book written by Louise Erdrich
• Tracks (magazine), monthly Australian surf magazine

In physics:

• Event reconstruction of a charged particle's path in relation to a particle accelerator or particle detector

See also

• Tracker
• Tracking
• Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, known by the acronym TRACS