#$&*
Phy 231
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.
** TIMER program_labelMessages **
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45 minutes
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Downloading and/or running the TIMER program
If you have a Macintosh computer the preferred timer.exe program might not work (it will if your computer has a Windows emulator), but the alternative Java applet should work just fine.
timer.exe
The program timer.exe should be downloaded to your hard drive and/or flash drive so you have access to it whenever you need it.
There is an alternative Java applet (see the heading timer java applet below) , but the .exe option is preferable. It is worth 15 minutes of effort to get the program working on your hard drive, after which you will have it and won't need Internet access to run it. It will start up instantly, it runs in a small window, and it has the ability to file your data. However if you can't get it working in 15 minutes with the instructions given below, just move on the the Java version.
To use the Windows version:
If you are using a Windows PC, or a Mac with Windows emulator, first take a few seconds to run the program q a prelim. As soon as the form opens on your screen, you can close it. Nothing needs to be submitted. The first thing this program does is to create the c:\vhmthphy folder on your hard drive. As an alternative you can also create a c:\vhmthphy folder.
The timer.exe program opens in a small window and can be run side-by-side with other windows applications on your computer (just size the second window so it leaves room for the Timer program).
Run the program now. If it fails to work then try the following, in order:
If you got the Run-time Error 76, it can be corrected by the step given earlier. That instruction is repeated below:
Run the program q a prelim. As soon as the form opens on your screen, you can close it. Nothing needs to be submitted. The first thing this program does is to create the c:\vhmthphy folder on your hard drive. As an alternative you can manually create this folder.
If this doesn't work, follow the link COMDLG32 to access simple instructions for fixing the problem. Then run timer.exe .
To use the Java version:
Windows users:
The Java applet does require that the Java Runtime Environment be installed. Almost every Apple computer, and most Windows computers, will have this environment installed. If your computer will not run the Java applet, the installation is simple and quick. If you search under 'Java Runtime Environment', using any search engine, you will find information on the Java Runtime Environment and on the installation. You should satisfy yourself that you are downloading from a verifiable, trusted source.
Mac users:
Apple supplies their own version of Java. Use the Software Update feature (available on the Apple menu) to check that you have the most up-to-date version of Java for your Mac.
should check the Apple site for the Software Update feature (available on the Apple menu) to check that you have the most up-to-date version of Java for your Mac.
The Java Applet at the link Timer-Java will work fine for the current experiment, and will do just about everything the timer.exe program will do. The Java applet has a few more or less minor inconveniences and one that's not quite as minor:
You can't put the Java applet on your hard drive or flash drive, so you have to pull it off the Web every time you want to use it.
The applet won't file your data. However it will let you copy and paste your data into a text editor.
If your machine doesn't run Java applets, you would have to set it up to do so (just search the web under 'Java Runtime Environment', which is free and installs easily). This software is pretty standard, and is already installed on most machines.
If the Timer-Java program won't run on your computer you might need to set Java to give it the necessary permissions. The instructions for doing so are as follows:
1. navigate to the java control panel by searching java from the windows search (start button on win 7) (move cursor to upper right corner to display search icon on win 8)
2. select configure
3. go to the security tab on the control panel.
4. select the edit site list option
5. select add and copy/paste the url of the page
6. apply settings
If these programs don't work there is a program at
http://tools.arantius.com/stopwatch
that provides similar output. However the format of the output has its disadvantages, one being that the output is given in hour-minutes-seconds, a format that isn't compatible with, say, many spreadsheets. This would add significant editing time to some activities.
Operating the TIMER program
It is easy to operate the Timer program. All you have to do is click on the button labeled Click to Time Event.
Click that button about 10 times and describe what you see.
I see three columns. The first is the numbers 1-10. The second is a series of numbers, each with 3-4 digits past the decimal point, increasing over a range from 161.0703 to 195.875.
The third colum begins, again, with 161.0703, but the rest of the numbers seem to follow no pattern. They range from 2.5 to 5.84375, but do not appear in sequential order and contain anywhere from 1 to 7 figures.
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Now click on Initialize or Reset the Counter, which will clear all the data from the timer window. Click the mouse as fast as you can until the TIMER window fills up. Be sure you get at least 20 time intervals.
If you miss a click, try again. Keep trying until you get at least 20 quick-click intervals without a missed or delayed click.
Copy your data starting in the next line:
1 442.625 442.625
2 442.7813 .15625
3 442.9375 .15625
4 443.0859 .1484375
5 443.2578 .171875
6 443.4219 .1640625
7 443.5938 .171875
8 443.7578 .1640625
9 443.9375 .1796875
10 444.0938 .15625
11 444.2656 .171875
12 444.4219 .15625
13 444.5938 .171875
14 444.7656 .171875
15 444.9375 .171875
16 445.1094 .171875
17 445.2813 .171875
18 445.4531 .171875
19 445.6172 .1640625
20 445.7891 .171875
21 445.9609 .171875
22 446.1328 .171875
23 446.3281 .1953125
24 446.5078 .1796875
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You got at least 20 time intervals. Based on your data what was the average of the first 20 time intervals? Note that you could get this average by averaging the first 20 intervals. My first few intervals were .15625, .15625, .1875, .171875, etc; I could just add up the first 20 intervals and divide by 20 to get the average. However there is an easier and quicker way to get the result, so use the easier way if you can. NOTE: Spreadsheet calculations and other methods that disguise the process of finding the average are not valid answers to this question. Spreadsheets are perfectly legal for most data analysis, but not in this experiment.
Give your result, number only, in the first line, and starting in the second line explain how you got it.
average of quick-click intervals:
0.158205
explanation:
I subtracted the time of my first click (although I do not know what 442.625 refers to, I assume it's seconds-- but seconds past what? the hour?) from the time of my 20th click and divided by 20.
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You have only a few intervals less than .158 seconds, and those aren't much less. On the other hand you have many intervals greater than .158 seconds, and most of them differ from .158 seconds by more than the intervals which are less.
So that can't be your mean.
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You would be expected to check your result for plausibility.
Having done so you would very likely discover that your error is simply enough. There are only 19 intervals between clock time 1 and clock time 20.
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When I did this activity the first few lines of my data were as follows:
event number clock time time interval
1 11.67188 11.67188
2 11.875 0.203125
3 12.0625 0.1875
4 12.20313 0.140625
5 12.375 0.171875
6 12.54688 0.171875
7 12.73438 0.1875
8 12.92188 0.1875
9 13.10938 0.1875
10 13.28125 0.171875
11 13.4375 0.15625
(The Online Stopwatch program gives output that looks like the following:
Lap # This Lap Running Total
1 00:00:00.231 00:00:00.231
2 00:00:00.200 00:00:00.431
3 00:00:00.200 00:00:00.631
4 00:00:00.177 00:00:00.808
5 00:00:00.184 00:00:00.992
When copied into Notepad it comes out looking like this:
Lap # This Lap Running Total
1 00:00:00.231 00:00:00.231
2 00:00:00.200 00:00:00.431
3 00:00:00.200 00:00:00.631
4 00:00:00.177 00:00:00.808
5 00:00:00.184 00:00:00.992
6 00:00:00.241 00:00:01.233
16 00:00:00.178 00:00:03.327
If you search and replace 00:00: with four spaces you get
Lap # This Lap Running Total
1 00.231 00.231
2 00.200 00.431
3 00.200 00.631
4 00.177 00.808
5 00.184 00.992
6 00.241 01.233
which is usable.)
With my data, it looks like the same intervals keep popping up. For example .1875 seconds occurs 5 times out of the first 10 intervals, .171875 seconds occurs three times, and .203125 seconds, .140625 seconds and .15625 seconds each occur once. With the Online Stopwatch program, we find that 0.200 seconds gets repeated once in 6 intervals.
A frequency distribution for my original time intervals would be as follows:
time interval frequency
,140625 1
.15625 1
.171875 3
.1875 5
.203125 1
What different time intervals did you observe in your first 20 intervals, and how many times did each occur? List below the different time intervals you observed and the number of times each occurred. List from the shortest to the longest interval, and use a comma between the time interval and its frequency. For example my data above would be listed at
.140625, 1
.1565, 1
.171875, 3
.1875, 5
.203125, 1
The above list is called a frequency distribution. Be sure you make note of this terminology.
Your list should be in exactly the above format, with no other symbols or characters.
Your list (i.e., your frequency distribution):
.1484375, 1
.15625, 4
.1640625, 3
.171875, 10
.1796875, 1
(And I'm missing one, because for some reason my counter started after 400 seconds... Any idea how I can correct this?)
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You are welcome make any comments or ask any question about the process so far.
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On the 10 intervals I've shown you, do you really think I managed to get a time of .1875 seconds, accurate to 4 significant figures, on half of the intervals? If you do, I'm grateful for your confidence but I'm just not that good. No human being has that much neurological and muscular control.
So why do you think the TIMER program reported that time so frequently? Why weren't there times like .1830 seconds, or .1769 seconds? Does this mean that the TIMER program is flawed? Does that mean it's useless?
Why did the TIMER report .1875 seconds multiple times; your conclusions about the program:
My best guess is that it is rounding very slightly so that the decimal always ends in .25, .5, .75, or else the number is whole (which happened on my first try, actually-- I got an interval of 4). I think this is so the decimal could also be reported as a fraction if necessary.
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Here are a few more lines of data, with an added column showing the difference between each time interval and the next.
clock time time interval difference from one time interval to next
9 13.10938 0.1875 -0.01563
10 13.28125 0.171875 -0.01563
11 13.4375 0.15625 0.03125
12 13.625 0.1875 -0.01563
13 13.79688 0.171875 0.015625
14 13.98438 0.1875 0.015625
15 14.1875 0.203125 -0.03125
16 14.35938 0.171875 -0.01563
17 14.51563 0.15625 0.03125
Take a good look at that last column and tell us what you see in those numbers, and what this tells you about the TIMER program:
The final column tells us how close you are to clicking at exactly the same rate throughout all 20. It looks like the difference from one interval to the next can just be in intervals of .015625. (Some were twice that length.) So .015625 must be the smallest unit the program can work with.
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Now initialize the TIMER once more, and take a series of 10 relaxed breaths. Every time you start to inhale, hit the TIMER button.
My results for the first 7 complete breaths are as follows:
series of relaxed breaths
event number clock time time interval difference between time interval and next
1 1569.734 1569.734
2 1582.75 13.01563 0.32812
3 1596.094 13.34375 3.90625
4 1613.344 17.25 2.70313
5 1633.297 19.95313 1.35937
6 1654.609 21.3125 4.23438
7 1680.156 25.54688 2.15625
8 1707.859 27.70313
I didn't go on because the time between my breaths kept increasing, and I was afraid if I relaxed any more I might stop breathing altogether. It's going to take either more statistical analysis to determine whether that's a real danger, or a little common sense.
Report your results by just entering your time intervals, one to each line, in the box below. If I was entering my results I would enter
13.01563
13.34375
17.25
19.95313
21.3125
etc.
Enter your results in the same format:
6.625
5.90625
5.304688
5.890625
5.421875
5.289063
5.1875
5.210938
6.273438
5.554688
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If you have any comments please insert them here
Well, this is confusing. Because these decimals seem not to be bound by the interval observed above. These end in 3's and 8's, mostly.
Also, I figured out that if I'm looking for 10 intervals, I need to click 11 times and start reading on line 2.
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Most likely you did not observe the same exact time interval twice, and if you did it did not happen nearly as often as when you did the fact clicks.
Why do you think this is exactly what we would expect?
We would expect this becase as fast as possible is a much more specific direction than relaxed. The first time, it is very easy to tell as I'm doing it whether I'm finding the rhythm or not. With the breathing exercise, that is not so-- my internal clock, my own sense of how long each breath is, is not so easy to keep track of.
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Which of the following statements do you think is the most accurate?
a. The TIMER program (or the Java TIMER or the Online Stopwatch -- specify which) is capable of determining the time between two events accurately to within about .1 second.
b. The TIMER program (or the Java TIMER or the Online Stopwatch -- specify which) is capable of determining the time between two events accurately to within about .01 second.
c. The TIMER program (or the Java TIMER or the Online Stopwatch -- specify which) is capable of determining the time between two events accurately to within about .001 second.
d. The TIMER program (or the Java TIMER or the Online Stopwatch -- specify which) is capable of determining the time between two events accurately to within about .0001 second.
Enter your answer and your reasoning below:
I think it's statement B, because that is closest approximation to the change-in-intervals we found with your data above, which was the problem where I was most striving for accuracy. I use the TIMER program.
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Good.
That's also consistent with the fact that you had many repeated times, expecially .171875.
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