Your 'timer program' report has been received. Scroll down through the document to see any comments I might have inserted, and my final comment at the end.
** Your General Comment **
** Describe what you see on your first 10 clicks **
I see two columns of numbers. One appears to have a running total time and the other shows the interval between the last two displayed times.
** Your TIMER data from 20 fast clicks **
1 2279.352 2279.352
2 2279.484 .1328125
3 2279.594 .109375
4 2279.695 .1015625
5 2279.82 .125
6 2279.93 .109375
7 2280.055 .125
8 2280.164 .109375
9 2280.281 .1171875
10 2280.406 .125
11 2280.523 .1171875
12 2280.656 .1328125
13 2280.781 .125
14 2280.914 .1328125
15 2281.023 .109375
16 2281.133 .109375
17 2281.258 .125
18 2281.367 .109375
19 2281.492 .125
20 2281.602 .109375
21 2281.734 .1328125
** Your average time interval for 20 time intervals **
0.1191 seconds
Calculated by subtracting total time at sample 1 from interval time at sample 21 and dividing the total by 20.
** Your frequency distribution for the 20 time intervals (interval, number of times it was observed) **
0.1015625, 1
0.1171875, 2
0.1328125, 4
0.125 , 6
0.109375 , 7
** Your general comment to this point **
** Why did you observe only certain time intervals? **
I think that the timer has to round numbers at a certain number of decimal points, so the measuring instrument has a certain granularity. The program is still useful if we are not going to use it for measurements that will be affected by the rounding. I suspect that the human element involved in actuating and reading the timer will introduce more error than the rounding or resolution of the timer.
** What did you see when you looked at the differences between time successive time intervals? **
The interval differences appear to be either 1/32 of a second or 1/64 of a second. Samples 13 and 14 are 1/64 to 6 decimal places and sample 16 is -1/64 to 5 decimal places. The binary nature of the computer number / counting system might account for the rounding of negative numbers differently than positive numbers.
** Your time intervals for 7 complete breaths: **
8.703125
9.210938
8.601563
7.875
6.257813
9.195313
9.273438
7.476563
7.632813
7.445313
** Your general comment to this point: **
** Why did you rarely, if ever, observe that same time interval twice? **
Breaths are longer and can vary by several orders of the timer intervals that we measured by rapidly clicking the timer button.
** Do you think this program is accurate to .1 or .01 ... **
I estimate that the timer is capable of determining the time between two events accurately within about 0.01 second due to the human interaction and reaction time.
** Copy of a few lines of your spreadsheet from the TIMER program. **
Breathing - relaxed
event number clock time time interval
1 4100.898 4100.898
2 4109.602 8.703125
** **
about 50 minutes total. Had a few interruptions so I am not certain.
** **
&#Very good work. Let me know if you have questions. &#