The periods of oscillaton were measured down to 0.38s. How could this be done with common laboratory timers?

Question

-a given hint is : are the times exact values?

I don't know how this would work b/c I've never heard of a timer or stopwatch thant can register a time of less than a sec and your hand wouldn't be able to hit the button fast enough anyways so I have no clue not even with the hint b/c if it was not an exact time then the closest on a normal stopwatch would be 1s b/c it goes from 1sec-another sec not a fraction of a sec.

Answer 1

Could you time 100 occilations, then divide by 100?

Answer 2

Hm..I guess you could but what would that prove??

but if the oscillation timed was 1sec 1sec and 1sec then I don't know what difference that would make...you'd get 1sec..right?

Isn't it the problem of the timer??

Answer 3

Yes, if you time 100 oscillations you avoid the timer problem. NOT time 1 oscillation 100 times, but 100 oscillations one time.

Answer 4

Oh..okay thanks Bob =D