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
E-mail inactive, please use Bob.S.Hamilton@kcc.com for any communication.
Describe what you see on your first 10 clicks
I see 3 columns of values. The first column appears to be the number of the event click, the second is the time the click took place, and the third column is the time difference between the previous click and current click. In the top window the number of clicks and total ending time are documented.
Your TIMER data from 20 fast clicks
1 282.4844 282.4844
2 282.7344 .25
3 282.8672 .1328125
4 282.957 8.984375E-02
5 283.0781 .1210938
6 283.2852 .2070313
7 283.4063 .1210938
8 283.5469 .140625
9 283.6563 .109375
10 283.7578 .1015625
11 283.8984 .140625
12 283.9961 9.765625E-02
13 284.1172 .1210938
14 284.2461 .1289063
15 284.3672 .1210938
16 284.5078 .140625
17 284.6172 .109375
18 284.7383 .1210938
19 284.8594 .1210938
20 285.0078 .1484375
21 285.1289 .1210938
22 285.25 .1210938
23 285.3711 .1210938
24 285.4883 .1171875
Your average time interval for 20 time intervals
0.132225
I took the final value of time, the 21st position for 20 intervals, and subtracted the starting value form this value. The result was divided by 20 to get the average of the 20 intervals.
Your frequency distribution for the 20 time intervals (interval, number of times it was observed)
8.984375E-02, 1
9.765625E-02, 1
.1015625,1
.109375, 2
.1210938,7
.1289063,1
.1328125,1
.140625,3
.1484375,1
.2070313,1
.25,1
Your general comment to this point
I see in your example above that you have 5 occurrences of .1875, however, I see only 4 occurrences of this value.
that is possible; however it should cause no confusion in the process, and certainly didn't in this case
Why did you observe only certain time intervals?
Appears that the timer is an incremental timer, therefore the same values will appear more frequently. If the timer does not increment to the next value, then the previous value is reported.
This does not mean that the timer is useless or flawed, but prevents a certain resolution or accuracy from being attained.
What did you see when you looked at the differences between time successive time intervals?
They appear to be multiples of each other and the timer program can indicate positive or negative time intervals.
Your time intervals for 7 complete breaths:
1407.367
1413.133
1419.543
1424.113
1430.953
1436.5
1442.148
1447.406
1453.313
1459.352
\
These are clock times, not time intervals. Your breaths did not occur at intervals of over 1400 seconds.
Your general comment to this point:
Appears the resolution is fine for the larger values.
This is the main point, and would still be pretty much valid even for the 5- and 6-second intervals at which you actually took your breaths.
Why did you rarely, if ever, observe that same time interval twice?
The larger values of time interval do not require the resolution as attempting to time very small increments of time. Therefore, recurring values are eliminated.
Do you think this program is accurate to .1 or .01 ...
I would think that the TIMER program is capable of determining the difference between two events accurately to within about .01 seconds. With the resolution being completed in increments, and the fact that the timer is software controlled, if the next increment is not reached then the previous incrememental value is used. Therefore, the value can be anywhere between the two values, and not necessarily accurate to the indicated figures. The accuracy of this timer doesn't appear that it can be within anything greater than .01 seconds.
Copy of a few lines of your spreadsheet from the TIMER program.
Timer Lab Test Data File
event number clock time time interval
1 3.113281 3.113281
2 3.285156 0.171875
3 3.433594 0.1484375
4 3.574219 0.140625
5 3.714844 0.140625
6 3.84375 0.1289063
7 4.003906 0.1601563
8 4.125 0.1210938
9 4.285156 0.1601563
10 4.425781 0.140625
11 4.554688 0.1289063
12 4.675781 0.1210938
approximately 50 minutes
Nothing at this time.
Very good. Good insight on the question of resolution. See my notes.