Transcription:
By Jesse Squire @tracksuperfan · 1h
If I did my math right, those starting block speakers made a difference last night.
Without them, Lyles would have been at a disadvantage of 0.008 sec — how long the sound of the pistol takes to travel from lane 4 (Thompson) to lane 7 (Lylesh).
He won by 0.005.
[A picture showing starting blocks on the track with runners' feet in them. Behind each starter block is a purple loudspeaker connected to wires leading out of frame.]
You'd also want your transmitter to be physically on equal distance from the speakers. You always get a bit of current via the electromagnetic field, and it spreads throughout anything, not just wires.
Well, it also depends on whether that little current is enough to make a sound that the runner would be able to hear.