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 10 rows and 2 columns of numbers. I am not sure what the first set of numbers stands for, but I think the second column is the amount of time between clicks.
** Your TIMER data from 20 fast clicks **
1 158.0938 158.0938
2 158.2344 .140625
3 158.3906 .15625
4 158.5469 .15625
5 158.6875 .140625
6 158.8438 .15625
7 159 .15625
8 159.1563 .15625
9 159.3281 .171875
10 159.4844 .15625
11 159.6406 .15625
12 159.8125 .171875
13 159.9844 .171875
14 160.1406 .15625
15 160.2969 .15625
16 160.4688 .171875
17 160.6406 .171875
18 160.8125 .171875
19 160.9844 .171875
20 161.1563 .171875
21 161.3438 .1875
22 161.4688 .125
23 161.6406 .171875
** Your average time interval for 20 time intervals **
.16118
I found that there were actually only 3 numbers that were repeated throughout my data. I took (.040625*2) + (.15625*9) + (.171875*8) and divided the total number by 19. The answer was .161184215, and approximated to 5 sig figs: .16118.
** Your frequency distribution for the 20 time intervals (interval, number of times it was observed) **
.15625, 9
.171875, 8
.140625, 2
** Your general comment to this point **
I did not include the number on the first line, so I only have 19 numbers. I thought it would throw my data off because all of the intervals are below .2, and the first number is 158.0938.
** Why did you observe only certain time intervals? **
It doesn't mean the timer program is useless. It isn't necessarily flawed either; it just isn't capable of accurately determining the intervals in such a small amount of time.
** What did you see when you looked at the differences between time successive time intervals? **
The differences from one time interval to the next are reoccurring . This tells us that the TIMER program is not accurately measuring the time intervals when the intervals are so small.
** Your time intervals for 7 complete breaths: **
6.75
6.484375
6.546875
6.046875
7.953125
8.140625
8.296875
7.1875
7.75
7.40625
** Your general comment to this point: **
I took 11 breaths so I would have 10 numbers to work with.
** Why did you rarely, if ever, observe that same time interval twice? **
The time intervals were much larger, and the TIMER program could more accurately measure them.
** Do you think this program is accurate to .1 or .01 ... **
I think the TIMER program is capable of (b.) determining the time between 2 events accurately to within about .01 second. In the first experiment we did, the time intervals were reoccurring and were all within .01 of each other. When the time intervals became larger, the numbers began repeating only in the hundredths place (.01)
** Copy of a few lines of your spreadsheet from the TIMER program. **
series of regular breaths time beginning of inhalation
event number clock time time interval
1 1363.813 1363.813
2 1370.563 6.75
3 1377.047 6.484375
4 1383.594 6.546875
5 1389.641 6.046875
6 1397.594 7.953125
7 1405.734 8.140625
8 1414.031 8.296875
9 1421.219 7.1875
10 1428.969 7.75
11 1436.375 7.40625
** **
45minutes
** **
`fr42