TIMER program

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Clearly you've used the .exe version of the TIMER program, which runs in increments of 4/256, or 1/64 second.

Students often believe that the program is accurate to within 10^-4 or 10^-5 seconds because of the number of significant in the output.

When this is the case I typically pose the question of how many possible outcomes there would then be within the observed range, and whether, say, 10 intervals would yield only 4 (or 5 or 6 or 7 as may be the case) of the hundreds or thousands of possible outcomes. Most students correctly revise their opinions when this question is posed. However most don't actually get to the conclusion that the interval is 1/64 second.

In rare cases a student will, without prompting, notice the apparent pattern.

The Java version of the program actually runs in milliseconds. In that case we place estimated bounds on the 'graniness' of the observations. At this level of precision repeated intervals are not so likely when only 10 observations are made, but become very likely with 100 observations.

I didn't think when I generated your code about the fact that the program I'm using keys on your email address. So I would identify you from your address, I keyed your code to ficekQMreviewer@.

Should you submit additional documents or questions, when asked for your email address use ficekQMreviewer@. I of course have your actual email address and will follow up.

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