PoleVaultPower.com

Hello, my name is David Papendick; I am in a Project Lead the Way class called Engineering Design and Development. My project team and I are currently working on a Pole Vault device design .
What we are researching is a solution for a tool that can be used by a single person to put up a crossbar and then quickly take a very precise measurement of the height. We have a very short survey developed on surveymonkey.com that we like members of polevaultpower.com to take so we can generated data to make the pole vault community a better place.

If you have questions, please contact our instructor, Collin Sheridan or email him at sheridanc@cape.k12.mo.us

I thank you in advance for the opportunity to enhance the education experience.

Link to Surveymonkey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RYWW385

The last question about what level you represent doesn't really make sense. Every state classifies their high schools differently, your options (Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, Class 4) are not applicable in 49 states. Also, there are other divisions of college besides DI/DII/DII like the NAIA and junior colleges. And there are many people involved in the sport outside of the high school and college level. Youth, clubs, elites, masters, etc...

Just MO, but for most HS meets were a record attempt is not being made, you only need to measure the bar once, at the lowest level. (And then you use an offset determined from that measurement to be (usually) added to the standards setting for all height (i.e., if the bar at "7 ft" as indicated by the standard's scale is really 6'9.5", then always add 2.5 inches to the position of the standards.)) And a 7ft measurement can be done with a pole, a thumb, an eye, and a tape measure. (Of course, this assumes the markings on the standards are at least accurate in a relative sense, even if inaccurate in an absolute sense; and it assumes the bar sag remains roughly the same throughout the competition.)

The problem with measuring it every time you put the bar up is that you waste a lot of time rolling the standards up to the zero point, and then rolling them back after the measurement, so measuring every time the bar is put up would be a huge time drain.

(BTW, for most purposes, an unused pole and a roll of athletic tape are all you need to measure the bar at any height at the HS level below 14 feet; and two poles and two rolls of tape for anything higher.)

(BTW #2. In my experience at about 20 different HS venues, not one was accurate if going by what the scale on the standards said: they average more than an inch low, (3.5 inches was the worst). I suspect this is because the standards are installed to get the pegs right, but they don't account for the sag of the bar).