[Bvc-chat] TT results for 8/4/10

[Gary Varner]

This week’s TT (8/4/10) started under clear skies but finished under a 
cloud of suspicion about the competence of the timer (me).

Weather, as I recorded it from the web before leaving my house, was: 99 
degrees with 38% humidity for a heat index of 106, and southerly winds 
around 14mph.

The results that my hand-written list of names, start-, and finish-times 
produced when entered into the spreadsheet I’d made up for the purpose 
were as listed below.

A couple of riders were pretty sure, from the results announced from my 
aforementioned spreadsheet in the parking lot afterward, that I had 
screwed something up, however, so an asterisk must be placed in the 
recordbook for this week.

Name: time = average speed

Allen, Willie: 34:46 = 21.447
Bowers, Bill: 35:36 = 20.945
Boykin, George: 44:40 = 16.693
Carlberg, Andrew: 31:46 = 23.472
Hercules, Greg: 26:33 = 28.084
Hunt, Kenny: 35:00 = 21.304
Korenek, Valerie: 51:16 = 14.544
Larson, Nate: 37:31 = 19.875
Mathis, Carlton: 36:45 = 20.289
Ogle, Marcus: DNF
Ritchey, Andrew: 36:33 = 20.400
Robison, Jim: 37:54 = 19.674
Salin, Brian: 34:49 = 21.416
Scooter: 40:48 = 18.275
Simon, Kyle: 36:59 = 20.161
Steelman, Drew: 41:02 = 18.171
Steelman, Samantha: DNF
VanBrundt, Bob: 34:46 = 21.447
Webb, Jacob: 41:33 = 17.945
Woolridge, Colin: 36:26 = 20.466
Worley, Ben (under 12): DNF

FWIW, the spreadsheet that I used to convert clock-start-time and 
clock-finish-time into elapsed-time and average speed can be examined 
here: http://philosophy.tamu.edu/~gary/TT-10-08-04.xls. Math is not my 
strong point, but I think that the spreadsheet calculates times and 
speeds correctly if the start and finish times are entered correctly ... 
which would point the “that can’t be right” finger in a specific direction.

(It has been pointed out to me that recording clock times isn't as 
simple and reliable as starting a stop watch, treating the first rider 
as 0, and subsequent one-minute-separated starters as 1, 2, etc., 
because then you can determine elapsed times by just subtracting the 
riders' numbers from their finish-time-minutes on the stop watch.)

For penance, I will volunteer to do the timing for the rest of this 
month, if the riders promise not to lynch me!

-- 
  ____________________________________________________________________
|    |  |____      Gary Varner                                       |
| ___|       |     Philosophy       "Fighting entropy since 1957"    |
| \       .  |     Texas A&M                                         |
|  \/\_     /      Director of Graduate Studies                      |
|      \  /        (979) 845-8499, 845-0458 (FAX) g-varner at tamu.edu  |
|       \(         Home page: http://philosophy.tamu.edu/~gary/      |
|____________________________________________________________________|