On September 15, a flame that has traveled from the ancient city of Olympia, Greece will enter the Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia. What is the Olympic Flame, and how will it get from Greece to Australia?

The Olympic Flame is continuing its journey from Greece to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Each year that the Winter Games or Summer Games are held, runners in the Olympic Torch Relay carry the Olympic Flame to the host country.

The flame travels widely and visits many different countries before arriving at its destination. Wherever it goes, it carries with it a message of unity and peace—the legacy of the ancient Olympics.

The relay starts at the ancient Greek town of Olympia—where the first games took place in 776 B.C. There the flame is lit and passed to the first torchbearer. This same flame then travels via a succession of torchbearers, and by various (and sometimes bizarre) methods of transport, until it reaches its final destination.

The relay comes to an end when the last torchbearer lights the cauldron in the Olympic Stadium of the host city. The Olympic flame remains lighted until it is extinguished at the closing ceremony.

Each time that the games are held, the Olympic Flame is kindled from the Sun's rays at a ceremony that recalls the customs of ancient Greece. Actors dressed in Greek robes gather at the Altar of Hera, near the entrance to the ancient stadium at Olympia. The central figure is an actor playing the role of a 'high priestess.' Calling first on the Gods of Olympus to witness her act, she uses a parabolic (curved) mirror to focus the Sun's rays and ignite the flame.

This year the flame was scheduled to be lit on May 10. As the actors and spectators assembled for the ceremony, heavy clouds loomed overhead and blocked the Sun's rays. After several failed attempts, the actors departed from tradition, and lit the flame from one that had been kindled from sunlight in a rehearsal on the previous day!

The 'high priestess,' carrying the sacred flame in an urn, led a procession to the ancient stadium, where the first Olympic Games were held. She then placed the urn containing the flame in the center of the stadium and lit the first torch. The first torchbearer of the relay was the Greek high jumper, Lambros Papakostas.

• Find out how a curved mirror can focus light rays from the Sun in Riverdeep's Physics Explorer activity, Reflections from Curved Surfaces.

• Take a virtual tour through the ancient city of Olympia, where the Olympic Flame is lit.

This year's torch relay promises to be the longest ever in the history of the modern Olympic Games. The Olympic Flame will travel for more than 120 days and will cover a distance of over 27,000 kilometers (16,780 miles) before it reaches its final destination of Sydney Olympic Park.

• The relay is already well underway. The flame has been traveling since May 10 when it left Olympia and embarked on a 10-day tour of over 200 cities, towns, and villages in Greece, ending at Athens—a total distance of 2,550 km.

  
  What distance, in miles, did the flame travel in Greece? (Remember that 1 mile = 1.61 kilometers.)

  How many miles did the flame travel on an average day of its Greek tour?

• From Athens the Olympic Flame was flown to the first of its stopovers in the Southern Hemisphere—Guam in the South Pacific.

• From Guam the flame toured a host of islands in the South Pacific region, and then traveled to New Zealand.

• From New Zealand, the flame traveled by plane to Australia, arriving at Uluru (also known as Ayer's Rock) in the heart of the Australian outback on June 8. The first person to carry the Olympic Flame on Australian soil was Nova Peris-Kneebone, who became the first Aboriginal Australian to win Olympic gold, at the Atlanta Games in 1996.

Keeping a flame burning for over 120 days is a major challenge even by Olympic standards. Although each torch is designed to withstand strong winds and some rain, the flame can be difficult to preserve—especially as it travels by so many different forms of transport, including by airplane. So how do they do it?

At the same time as the first torch of the relay is lit from the Olympic Flame, a number of safety lanterns are also lit from the same flame. These lanterns travel inside guarded vehicles alongside the torch relay. If a torch accidentally goes out, it can be reignited using one of the lanterns.

At night, when no one is carrying the torch, the flame is kept burning in the safety lantern. The first torch of each day of the relay is lit from the flame in the lantern. This means that the authenticity of the Olympic Flame can be preserved. The flame that is carried on the torch is always the same flame that was lit earlier at Olympia.

And accidents do happen! During the torch relay for the Atlanta Games of 1996, a torchbearer riding a bicycle across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state fell off his bicycle, he dropped the torch, and the flame went out. And during the torch relay for the 1998 Japan Winter Games, the torch went out or failed to light nine times in seven days.

• The Olympic Flame will travel for 100 days around Australia, visiting all states, territories, and capital cities.

• Approximately 10,000 runners will carry the Olympic Flame to over 1,000 towns. The flame is expected to pass within one hour's drive of 85% of the Australian population.

  If the population of Australia is approximately 20 million, about how many of these peole will be within an hour's drive of the flame?

• On a typical day of the relay, 100 runners will carry the torch for a distance of 500 meters each. The runners will travel at an average speed of 8.5 km/h.

  How long will it take the average runner to cover the 500-meter distance?

  At what average speed, in miles per hour, will the runners be traveling?

• Each runner will use a new torch. More than 14,000 torches will be needed for the Sydney 2000 Torch Relay.

• Each torch contains a canister of fuel that allows the torch to burn for 20 minutes.

• The Olympic Flame will travel by an estimated total of 50 different modes of transport, including camel, canoe, train, mountain bike, life-rescue boat, tram, airplane (business class), skis, on horseback, and even by the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Learn More

• Middle school students: Start preparing for the Olympic track championships. The Destination MATH activity, MSC IV: Dividing Decimals: Dividing Decimals by Whole Numbers, will help you to work out who's in the lead.

• High school students: Use the Tangible Math activity, Stats!: The Olympic Games to examine winning times for Olympic gold medallists over the last 100 years and analyze the trends.

More Links

• Visit the official Web site of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

• The Sydney Morning Herald lets you track the position of the Olympic Flame each day between now and September 15. Find out who's carrying the torch, and read about the places the flame is passing through. (Requires the Flash plug-in. Download now.)

• Read more about the ancient Olympic Games.

Related Resources

• Get Running towards 2000: The Olympic Flame and Torch, by Janet Cahill.