Lesson plan
Snickometer
Snickometer, commonly known as Snicko, was a system used in cricket to determine whether the ball edged the bat, for a potential dismissal such as a catch or leg before wicket. It does this by showing a frame-by-frame replay of the footage of the ball passing the bat alongside a waveform displaying the soundwave of an oscilloscope connected to a sensitive microphone near the stumps. The newer version currently in use is called Real-Time Snickometer (RTS) and does not need to be manually synchronized for every piece of footage, making the process much faster. It was initially used for the broadcast team to attempt to determine whether the ball hit the bat and therefore if the umpire gave the correct decision. It is now also used for DRS reviews when the third umpire needs to determine whether the ball hit the bat, such as for when a ball is caught behind and the batsman might have edged the ball, or in the case of leg before wicket, where the batsman is not out lbw if the ball has hit the bat (or glove) before it hit their body. It is used for this purpose in tandem with Hot Spot. It was invented by English computer scientist Allan Plaskett in the mid-1990s. The snickometer was introduced by Channel 4 in the UK, who also introduced the Hawk-Eye and the Red Zone, in 1999.
Article summary
Snickometer, commonly known as Snicko, was a system used in cricket to determine whether the ball edged the bat, for a potential dismissal such as a catch or leg before wicket. It does this by showing a frame-by-frame replay of the footage of the ball passing the bat alongside a waveform displaying the soundwave of an oscilloscope connected to a sensitive microphone near the stumps. The newer version currently in use is called Real-Time Snickometer (RTS) and does not need to be manually synchronized for every piece of footage, making the process much faster. It was initially used for the broadcast team to attempt to determine whether the ball hit the bat and therefore if the umpire gave the correct decision. It is now also used for DRS reviews when the third umpire needs to determine whether the ball hit the bat, such as for when a ball is caught behind and the batsman might have edged the ball, or in the case of leg before wicket, where the batsman is not out lbw if the ball has hit the bat (or glove) before it hit their body. It is used for this purpose in tandem with Hot Spot. It was invented by English computer scientist Allan Plaskett in the mid-1990s. The snickometer was introduced by Channel 4 in the UK, who also introduced the Hawk-Eye and the Red Zone, in 1999.
Key claims
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.