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
Two columns of numbers appear each time the mouse clicks on the Time Event button.
Your TIMER data from 20 fast clicks
1 110.3906 110.3906
2 110.5313 .140625
3 110.6719 .140625
4 110.8125 .140625
5 110.9688 .15625
6 111.125 .15625
7 111.2656 .140625
8 111.4219 .15625
9 111.5781 .15625
10 111.7188 .140625
11 111.875 .15625
12 112.0469 .171875
13 112.2031 .15625
14 112.3594 .15625
15 112.5156 .15625
16 112.6719 .15625
17 112.8281 .15625
18 112.9688 .140625
19 113.1406 .171875
20 113.2813 .140625
21 113.4844 .203125
Your average time interval for 20 time intervals
.144535
I took the last number, number 20, and subtracted number 1 from it. Then, I divided that number by 20 (the twenty clicks). This should give the average I think.
Your frequency distribution for the 20 time intervals (interval, number of times it was observed)
.140625, 7
.15625, 10
.171875, 2
Your general comment to this point
No comments or questions.
Why did you observe only certain time intervals?
Obviously, the timer program is not useless; however, I am not sure why so many of the interval times were repeated.
What did you see when you looked at the differences between time successive time intervals?
Well, all the differences occur within three numbers, but those numbers vary between positives and negatives (either time was added or was taken away). It may mean (and this is merely a guess) that the timer rounds to certain numbers when figuring out the time intervals.
Your time intervals for 7 complete breaths:
2097.906
4.296875
4.0625
4.265625
3.875
4.125
3.84375
4.046875
3.6875
3.84375
Your general comment to this point:
I don't think I took quite as relaxed breaths as you--I hope that is ok!
About 15 breaths per minute is a normal pattern.
Why did you rarely, if ever, observe that same time interval twice?
Where the interval was more slower, the timer did not come as close to the same numbers as before, thus eliminating its need to round to the same interval repeatedly (because it is harder to repeat numbers and intervals the longer time has elapsed in between each).
Do you think this program is accurate to .1 or .01 ...
B. I think B is the right answer because it seems that most of the data begins repeating (the the numbers have been rounded) beyond this point. I am not very confident at all in my answer, though.
Copy of a few lines of your spreadsheet from the TIMER program.
clock time time interval
1 2097.906 2097.906
2 2102.203 4.296875
3 2106.266 4.0625
4 2110.531 4.265625
5 2114.406 3.875
6 2118.531 4.125
7 2122.375 3.84375
8 2126.422 4.046875
9 2130.109 3.6875
10 2133.953 3.84375
35 minutes
Very good results. Later we will likely have a group discussion about the time intervals and why only certain intervals can be observed.