A Cheetah Running in Super Slow Mo

On August 1, as the 2012 Summer Olympics were taking place in London, the Cincinnati Zoo released news that an 11-year-old cheetah named Sarah had shattered the 100-meter speed record for a runner. She clocked a time of 5.95 seconds, breaking the 2001 record of a cheetah named Nyana, who ran the same distance in 6.13 seconds. Just for comparison's sake, Sarah's time was more than three seconds faster than Usain Bolt's time in the 100m at the Olympics. You can watch Sarah and some of her friends from the Cincinnati Zoo take off in the National Geographic video. The team shot the cheetahs using a Red Phantom camera, recording the video at 1200 frames per second. As you watch, check out the timer in the upper left to get a sense of just how fast the cheetahs are moving.