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Comment by orblivion | Hacker News Reader

Per competition though, not across competitions, which is relevant WRT world records.

Yes - the fact that the record was broken twice in this one competition suggests that its particular initial state should be analyzed for solvability before we assume that we have entered 'a new chapter for speedcubing.'

The two records were actually on different scrambles (i.e. different initial states).

It's one thing if there was a particular scramble that everyone was solving faster than usual, but that wasn't the case here.

Well, yeah. You can't account for everything. Traditional sports don't consider elevation, air quality, wind, etc.

To an extent. Road race world records are only valid if they fall within certain limits of elevation change. You can run slightly downhill, but can't descend 500 meters. Ditto for tailwinds, I believe.

Wind speed is accounted for in athletics. Records won't get validated if there is a strong tail wind.

This seems to be the only somewhat common variable.

They do consider wind. Too much tail wind can invalidate a world record.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_assistance

That's one factor in one sport.

Does anyone disregard a track world record because the weather was pleasant that day, and the previous recordholder did it on a hot, humid one? Does anyone argue Barry Bonds' home run title should be disregarded because of the thin air at his away games in Denver?

Take away wind assistance, and Bucky Dent loses his place in history. Take away a pebble in the grass and the Red Sox win the 1986 World Series. Add some rain to give pitchers an extra day of rest, and all sorts of baseball history gets upended.

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