Well hi! The oldest game in the world dates back to
3500 BCE (I wasn’t around back then) — and it means we’ve been playing games for more
than 5,500 years . Let’s take a look at the game venues we use for them — from the
smallest to the biggest! Starting with checkers, the smallest yet the
most ancient of modern games. The board is just 16 by 16 inches, with each
square being 2 inches across. The first mentions of checkers (or draughts,
as it’s otherwise called) dates back to 3000 BCE. A chess board is of a similar size, but the
game itself is much younger: it was first played in the 14th century. Next goes darts — a huge leap forward in
time but not in size. The standard board is 17 inches in diameter. The game we know now was invented by Brian
Gamlin, an English carpenter, in 1896, and has since not changed too much. Back in time to backgammon — another pretty
old board game, also dating back about 5,000 years. There’s no fixed board size, but some of
the biggest ones are 25 by 21 inches. The board is most commonly made of wood, but
it can also be leather, cork, felt, or just about any material good enough for sliding
checkers on it. Your normal Ping pong table measures at 107
inches long and 60 inches wide. Professional players don’t call the game
ping pong, though — it’s table tennis for them. And while the table is the same, the game
rules — and stakes — are very different. Different — just like pool and snooker billiards. The largest pool table is a nine-footer: its
dimensions are 9 by 4.5 ft, but it could also be 8 or 7 ft in length. The main rule here is that it’s always twice
as long as it is wide. As for snooker table, it’s about 12 by 6
ft. This is an approximate measure, though, because
the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association gives strict dimensions that can
only digress by half an inch. Next is a boxing ring. The whole platform is a square with a side
of 307 inches, but the ring itself is smaller — just 240 inches. Nowhere to hide or run here, bud. By the way, there are two white corners, and
then a red and a blue corner, where the fighters prepare for the match and recover. Squash is kinda like tennis but played with
a wall as part of the game. The court is 30 ft long and 20 ft wide, and
you can play this game both with a partner and alone. Slightly larger with more breathing space
is a karate arena. The fighting square is 26 by 26 ft, but the
overall area is 32 ft squared, which accommodates the referee and the added safety zone. No ropes for this one, though, only flat surface
and nothing more. Badminton court is longer but narrower than
a karate arena. Its length is almost 43 ft, while it’s only
20 ft wide. Surely you didn’t know this sport had fixed
dimensions? Well, I didn’t. Even longer and even narrower still is a bowling
lane — 60 ft long, 42 inches wide, the ten-pin bowling is a globally acknowledged sport. Ever made a strike or a split in your spare
evening, huh? Share in the comments! Now, who doesn’t love beach volleyball? With the court of 52 by 26 ft, this summer
sport is played in teams of two, and you can play it wherever there’s some sand and a
net to throw the ball over. Indoor volleyball court is a more crowded
place: it’s normally 60 by 30 ft, and the teams are three times as large too, with six
players on each side. Surprisingly, a tennis court is larger, though. With 78 ft in length and 26 ft in width, it
could easily accommodate even more people than a volleyball court, but only two play
here. And if there are four, the width is even larger
at 36 ft. So much running around… Heading on to big guys. Basketball court is 95 by 50 ft, which you
can’t cross without dribbling the ball. Originally, you didn’t have to dribble,
but you could only move the ball by passing it. Dribbling was invented as a way to pass to
yourself. Splash! We’re in a water polo pool, and I chose
the biggest one available. It’s 100 ft long and 65 ft wide, so there’s
a lot of space to swim even for two teams of seven members. According to the rules, you can’t push the
opponents down with your hands, but there’s nothing in the rules about pulling them underwater
with your feet! A quick riddle: what’s water polo without
water? It’s handball! But the court is a bit larger here: 130 ft
long and 65 ft wide. Despite its name, legs are just as important
in handball as hands: apart from running like crazy, players kick the ball too. All this running around makes me sweat, so
back to the water! An Olympic-sized pool is 165 by 80 ft. In training arenas, the length can be cut
in two, and training becomes even more intense because of more frequent turning maneuvers. Unfortunately, if you want to play ice hockey,
you can’t just freeze an Olympic pool: it’s too small. A standard ice hockey rink is about 200 ft
long and 100 ft wide. It also has rounded corners for better handling
of the puck. Let’s bring back summer with a baseball
field: it’s really big already, measuring at 300 by 300 ft. It’s not a square, though, as you might
know — it has the infield, or a diamond, and the outfield, which fans out from the
diamond in a crescent. Soccer field dimensions can vary, but a Major
League one is typically 350 ft in length and 150 ft in width. I guess kicking the ball while running all
the time is hard enough without making the field too big. The rugged rugby players, though, have to
cross a considerable distance: their field is 390 ft long and 230 ft wide. It’s just 30 ft shy of being as long as
the Great Pyramid of Giza is tall! But we’re still going for bigger stuff! While a cricket pitch might be much smaller,
the overall field is pretty huge: it’s slightly egg-shaped, with the widest part being 490
ft and the narrowest — 450 ft. It may look a bit like baseball, but the rules
and the scale are something else entirely. Now, if you thought a rugby field was big
enough, consider the Australian football: the standard field there is oval-shaped, 540
ft in length and 440 ft in width. That’s a long way to run, I’d say — and
it’s the longest humans would go in an enclosed space on their own two feet. That’s why we switch to four legs: a racecourse
is typically about 3,000 ft long and 1,150 ft wide. The oldest and most revered horse race is
called the Derby, and is annually held in England. Replace the legs with wheels, and you’ll
get a race track. The longest looped track in the world is called
Talladega Superspeedway. It’s over 5,700 ft long and 3,100 ft wide,
and the length of the track itself is 2.66 miles. And finally, the largest field made for sports
and recreation is… no, it’s not some other race track. It’s a golf course. Of course. Though the largest golf facility, which has
even made it in the Guinness World Records, is China’s Mission Hills Shenzhen golf resort,
it has 18 courses, and none of them alone is the largest in the world. The title of the longest course on the planet
belongs to the Australian Nullarbor Links, which stretches across the whopping 850 miles,
taking in parts of both Western and Southern Australia. Players must get lost in there from time to
time. Wow – all of the fields and boards we’ve
covered with you today. Kinda makes you want to go play something,
doesn’t it? What’s your favorite game? Tell me about it in the comments! Hey, if you learned something new today, then
give the video a like and share it with a friend! And here are some other videos I think you'll
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on the Bright Side of life!
